HSBC Forms Strategic AI Partnership to Transform Global Legal Function
HSBC has entered a strategic partnership with Harvey AI to upgrade its global legal operations. The pilot will roll out Harvey's platform across legal teams worldwide, targeting faster workflows while meeting strict control, security, and regulatory expectations.
This move signals a push to turn routine legal work into a structured, tech-enabled process that scales across regions. The goal is simple: cut cycle times, raise quality, and reduce risk without compromising standards.
"This isn't just about deploying new technology - it's about reimagining how an in-house legal function can operate by combining the speed and efficiency of AI with the expertise and judgment of our legal professionals," said Bob Hoyt, HSBC's Chief Legal Officer. "It is an investment in a future where our lawyers can spend more time on strategic, high-value work to benefit our business colleagues and the customers they serve."
Where this moves the needle for in-house teams
- Contract analysis: Faster review, better playbook adherence, and clearer issue spotting across jurisdictions.
- Due diligence: Standardized checklists, rapid document summaries, and consistent risk flags.
- Compliance: Support for policy mapping, controls testing, and audit-friendly logs.
- Litigation support: Drafting aids, summarization, and precedent retrieval with human review in the loop.
- Global scale: A structured pilot helps align data security, access controls, and privilege across regions.
Pilot scope and safeguards
The program is built to uphold regulatory expectations from day one. That means clear access governance, data segregation, logging, and oversight across the legal stack.
Expect model governance, documented review steps, and guidance for handling confidential information and privilege. Human verification remains the standard for advice, filings, and high-risk decisions.
Operational outcomes to track
- Cycle time: Drafting and review hours per matter. Target meaningful reductions without quality slippage.
- Quality: Error rates and policy compliance compared to historical baselines.
- Cost-to-serve: Outside counsel spend, rework, and escalations.
- Matter triage: First-pass routing, intake clarity, and SLA adherence.
- Standardization: Template and clause reuse across regions and business lines.
- Risk visibility: Consistent issue tagging, rationale, and audit trails.
What to put in your playbook
- Use cases: Start with contracts, research, diligence packs, and policy checks.
- Guardrails: Clear rules for data handling, approvals, and privilege.
- Change enablement: Short training, reference examples, and office hours.
- Review model: Every AI output gets human validation where risk is material.
- Metrics: Define success thresholds before the pilot; publish results internally.
- Vendor diligence: Confirm data residency, retention, encryption, audit rights, and incident response.
About HSBC
HSBC is a global bank with a network across Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It serves individuals, businesses, and institutions with a broad range of financial services. Learn more at hsbc.com.
About Harvey AI
Harvey AI provides an AI platform for legal and professional services, focused on contract review, due diligence, compliance, and litigation management. The company reports serving 1,000+ customers across 59 countries. Explore the platform at harvey.ai.
For legal leaders: next steps
- Run a 90-day pilot with 3-5 use cases and pre-set metrics.
- Map data flows and privilege handling before onboarding documents.
- Create a short policy for acceptable use, disclosures, and approvals.
- Stand up a small governance group from Legal, Compliance, Security, and IT.
- Train power users first, then expand based on measurable wins.
If your team is building AI fluency for legal work, see curated options by role at Complete AI Training.
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