AI is the future. Especially generative AI, as already discussed. APIs are present. For the non-IT people here: API stands for „Application Programming Interface“). An API is a defined interface through which software programs can communicate and interact with each other.
APIs are so great because they provide a simple and standardised way to share data and functions between different systems. By using an API, businesses can quickly and efficiently access the functionality of other programs without having to code them from scratch. Furthermore, they improve the security and stability of the underlying systems and also facilitate the management of permissions and access control.
Any modern Legal Tech tool or any other modern software comes with an API. Often users can generate their personal API key in their account by themselves (that’s how it should be everywhere). You can do with the API key what you can do in the interface of the software.
A few examples from our daily work:
- Collecting documents in a collaboration platform, handing them over to document analysis software, linking them to data from a commercial register, entering the analysis results and the linked data into the report document, commissioning the translation tool to translate the field contents and filling the report in the other language with this data, storing both in a document management system. Using the analysis data and linked information in a document automation tool to create new draft contracts.
- Or the creation of user accounts and corresponding permissions in legal tech tools. And consolidating the usage data of these tools into central reporting disaggregated by office, practise, and matter.
- Or the linking of personnel data, door passes, and the canteen billing system in order to bill individual consumption and automate operating cost flat rates.
- Or the creation of user accounts and their single sign-on in the mobile phone portal for self-service ordering of new iPhones when accessing the portal for the first time.
- Or, or, or.
End-to-end processes can be realised with a universal super tool (which I haven’t found yet) or with the best-of-breed products integrated with their APIs.
We still have hand-beaded and mouth-blown interfaces, with SFTP file transfer, conversion programs, and scheduled tasks in use in some places. Some are as fragile as Murano glass, others as stable as French oaks. We are in the process of replacing the last ones with API calls.