Harvey and Legora launched similar legal intake capabilities just one day apart, on October 13 and 14.
Harvey and Legora launched similar legal intake capabilities just one day apart, on October 13 and 14.
And it raises an interesting question: How do you differentiate between legal AI tools when vendors are increasingly offering similar capabilities?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Process work never goes out of style. 👏
And in the age of AI, I’d argue it’s more important than ever.
Of course, you should be asking vendors what differentiates their solutions. It’s a valuable question, and frankly, one they should be able to answer.
But I’m finding that even legal tech vendors don’t always have a clear answer to that question.
And that’s exactly why I think the most meaningful differentiators are the ones you uncover through your own process work and testing.
Here’s what I mean. 👇
Before you start comparing features or sitting through demos, you need to understand what you’re actually trying to solve.
That starts with mapping your existing processes and building what I call your problem pipeline: a running inventory of the friction points, inefficiencies, and challenges your legal team is experiencing.
From there, you can:
→ Turn those problems into clearly defined use cases.
→ Determine which problems actually warrant a technology solution (because not every problem needs AI!).
→ Translate those use cases into legal and business requirements.
→ Evaluate Harvey, Legora, or any other solution against those requirements.
→ Rigorously test the capabilities using your team’s actual workflows, documents, and scenarios.
And I mean REALLY test them.
Because two vendors might offer the same feature on paper, but that doesn’t mean they’ll perform equally well against your organization’s requirements.
That’s where you’ll uncover the differentiators that actually matter to YOU.
Vendors should absolutely be able to articulate what makes their products different. But we can’t rely on their answers alone to make our technology decisions, especially when the market is moving this quickly.
You need to do the foundational work to understand what you’re solving for, what success looks like, and whether a particular solution can actually deliver.
Otherwise, you’re just comparing feature lists and hoping you’ve picked the right tool.
The pace of AI innovation isn’t making process work obsolete.
It’s making process work more valuable than ever.
For those evaluating legal AI tools right now: Are vendors clearly articulating their differentiators, or are you uncovering the meaningful differences through your own testing? Tell me in the comments ⬇️