Tools that make us smarter.

Tools that make us smarter.

Hi, and a very Merry Christmas to one and all. I am writing this article pretty much on the fly, out in Spain at my mum´s place and because sometimes I just need to sit down and write.

Since the last time we caught up, I decided to take a step back and review the Future Bound Community Assistant concept IBM approved earlier this year. You may be wondering why that is so. Let me explain.

The use cases and purpose of our intelligent virtual assistant remain the same, but the complexity that was rapidly emerging was bothering me. In fact, it was bothering me to the point I sent a lengthy email to a project partner with a risk assessment attached showing why emotion recognition technology and the legal sector are not good friends.

From the inception of this project, the objectives have been to support and nurture the community as well as enhance business capabilities and workflows, so much so that the conceptual ideal of “ethical AI” was becoming a moonshot, with the project´s foundations and viable business grounding being lost in the wilderness.

So I decided to streamline things. Our ESA concept and prototype are a viable solution for the legal sector. The concept of an impact assessment tool is also something we can deliver, but as a separate initiative and one that resonates with the public sector digital inclusion strategy. Society projects matter.

I am being as direct as I can be because I believe, like many do, that AI should indeed be for the rest of us. Technology should be a force for good. For positive change. It should allow us to create tools that make us smarter, and if those tools are designed to help others as well as enhance business capabilities, then that is only ever a good thing.

When reviewing my company´s concept, I wondered how our assistant would be able to provide more than just know your rights information and legislative guidance for law firm clients who could not see the woods for the trees.

Getting support or taking legal action over any matter is stressful at the best of times, after all, I should know, and prospective clients are often carrying a lot of trauma that needs to be unpacked by anything but a chatbot.

That´s why I have decided to make the most of Watsonx Orchestrate agents to work with our assistant. It´s possible to enhance legal workflow with agents who can deal with new client enquiries, who can use sentiment analysis as well as NLP (as a basic rough guide) to assist paralegals and lawyers in initial client intake, giving more insight than would usually be provided.

Maybe that insight helps a legal specialist approach that client with greater understanding. Maybe in the same instance, an AI agent helps with case research, hell, maybe it even helps you write a police complaint. The possibilities are endless, but the specialisms are vital.

On January 28th, we are hosting a webinar on the Future Bound Community Assistant, its use cases and more. We´re focusing on Watsonx deployments in law and why they matter, as well as AI ethics and fairness.

We want to show you how we see AI being for the many and not just the few. I want to show you why Future Bound IT Ltd should be your firm´s technology partner in 2026.

We may be a small business with big ideas, but we have advanced capabilities and working with our business partner IBM, I believe it´s possible to deliver a solution that does not just enhance business capabilities but empowers the community. I hope you feel the same. Have a very Merry Christmas and an outstanding New Year. Let´s create.