SPECIAL FEATURE: Bridging the gap – advancing legaltech in the next generation of conveyancing searches – SearchFlow

SPECIAL FEATURE: Thomas Quirke, Landmark’s Divisional Director of Data & Search (SearchFlow), writes an article on bridging the gap by advancing legaltech in the next generation of conveyancing searches.

AI and automation are becoming ubiquitous tech enablers in almost every industry and have proven to be game-changing across everything from finance to education. But ask property law professionals how much they see AI in their day-to-day work life, and many will say that while they recognise the potential, it’s not yet a reality. In fact, our research shows that only 29% of real estate legal firms are using AI and automation in parts of their business.

We know that factors such as complex and long-established processes, risk mitigation, and the cost and organisational rate of digital adoption are often at the root of slow progress on the road to unlocking AI’s potential. As such, caution, and the desire for incremental change, rather than wholesale transformation, are understandable.

Every menial task that is being automated by AI, often represents several hours work for legal teams. This means that more time is freed up for law firms to focus on higher value work that will improve client services. And yet – too many law firms are taking an overcautious approach to adopting AI. Go too slow, and law firms face further risks – left unresolved, these risks could end up with serious ramifications for the industry.

AI-enabled solutions help firms operate faster, more cost-efficiently and at greater volumes. Over-reliance on time-consuming manual processes can have significant knock-on effects on a firm’s billing potential, ability to grow, and competitive performance. Further, with every era of technological innovation comes a raft of industry disruptors that are agile, hungry and tech-savvy enough to pick off process-led pieces of work from more cumbersome legal competitors.

The question now is, where can these AI-driven services best be applied to add tangible value to law firms?

Legaltech’s secret weapon? It’s the next generation of property search

At SearchFlow, we surveyed commercial real estate law professionals about the future of their industry and technology trends. The results of that survey showed that 57% of respondents agreed that AI is a fast-moving area of innovation but said that it would be difficult to predict what would be required. This is perhaps why only 29% were using AI and automation in parts of the business with a further 33% saying they were reviewing it for the longer term.

Ultimately, questions remain about how, and exactly to what extent, these enabling technologies can add meaningful value. This is as much about education as anything else – since AI capability and how it can help law professionals are still widely misunderstood.

In the conveyancing space, we have long seen property search as being the next frontier of Legaltech. So much so, that we’ve been exploring the possibilities that AI and related cutting-edge enabling technologies can bring to the table. The answer is that the opportunities now emerging are both myriad and compelling.

We’ve proven that AI, when applied to standard search data like the Land Registry Title that kickstart transactions every day, can speed-up decision making, bring higher accuracy and certainty to pricing, and equip the conveyancing team with a new depth of insight that will better inform decision making across the transaction. This isn’t just about driving efficiency and lowering cost either – by allowing AI to take the brunt of the menial tasks, law firm teams get a chance to reclaim precious time to spend on client relationships and focus on the bigger picture – improving team morale in the process.

We believe that by innovating around the property search process, we can offer a tangible and value-adding way to leverage AI. This is only just the beginning since it opens new doors to greater business process control and integration.

From allowing for quick and easy assessments of portfolio-wide environmental risks, to making data-informed decisions, to identify the most pressing risk areas within a portfolio, or quoting more accurately, legaltech tools are instrumental to elevating overall business performance.

Our latest report Bridging the Gap: Advancing legaltech in the next generation of conveyancing searches, explores how firms can turn AI into action to help accelerate the property transaction process, and start reaping the benefits – as much as a £10,000 saving in a single 150-property portfolio transaction for one property law firm – immediately. Our newly launched AI-driven search tools – Title Data Service, and Interpreted Search – aims to bring the benefits of AI to Real Estate search to do exactly this, freeing up conveyancers’ time for what really matters.