Wordsmith AI Secures $25M to Transform Legal Work for In-House Teams
Wordsmith AI Ltd., based in Edinburgh, Scotland, recently raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. The company is focused on developing AI solutions that assist in-house legal teams by automating contract and policy reviews, aiming to turn lawyers into legal engineers.
Wordsmith’s platform streamlines legal workflows by integrating with existing productivity tools. Its AI agent and chatbot can review documents, answer questions, and operate directly within Microsoft Word via a plugin. This setup helps legal professionals work faster and with more precision.
Legal Engineering: A New Role for Lawyers
Ross McNairn, Wordsmith’s CEO, transitioned from law to software engineering after finding legal work repetitive and slow. He now leverages his dual expertise to build tools that empower lawyers to take on a legal engineering role. According to McNairn, this shift allows legal teams to have a bigger impact by combining legal judgment with technology.
How Wordsmith AI Works
Legal teams can upload contracts or policies in various formats—including Word, PDF, or even URLs—into Wordsmith’s AI agent. The AI then reviews the material based on the business’s custom playbook, risk tolerance, and negotiation style. It highlights deviations and flags issues for legal review, helping teams quickly identify important changes or risks.
- Supports multiple agreement types such as NDAs, data processing, SaaS contracts, terms of service, and recruitment agreements.
- Can ingest a company’s own contracts to learn and replicate their specific formats and preferences.
Additional Features for Legal Teams
Beyond document review, Wordsmith offers a legal AI assistant that transcribes audio and images into text, provides in-line citations for sourced information, translates documents into 22 languages, and drafts communications. The AI integrates with tools commonly used by legal professionals, including Slack, email, Word, and Google Docs.
Scaling Legal Efficiency
McNairn envisions Wordsmith as a tool that tightens legal workflows, enabling businesses to move faster without sacrificing accuracy. The company already works with clients like Deliveroo, Trustpilot, and Virgin Group, demonstrating its ability to meet the demands of large legal teams.
With the fresh funding, Wordsmith plans to expand its presence in Edinburgh, London, and New York, enhance its AI infrastructure, and launch a Legal Enablement Academy to support legal professionals adopting these new technologies.
“We’re not just building features. We’re redefining the role of legal,” McNairn said. “Every lawyer should have tools that scale their judgment.”
For legal professionals interested in exploring AI tools that optimize legal workflows, resources and training are available at Complete AI Training.
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