Introduction to Big Tech News
Hello, and welcome to your weekly dose of Big Tech news and insights. I’m your host Alistair Barr. My dog Maisie is having surgery soon, so keep her in your thoughts. I recently met a friend for coffee, and he shared some surprising news. After working in cloud computing for roughly 20 years, he’s moving from Silicon Valley to the UK. Would you leave Silicon Valley right now? Where would you go?
Agenda for This Week
This week, we’re talking about how generative AI is changing professional services, especially law firms and consulting. We’ll also take a look at the Silicon Valley chatter right now, including Meta’s turning point, Google’s pickle, and Microsoft’s new AI vision. And I’ll experiment with an AI tool and show you the results — something I hope to do each week, and get your responses and recommendations.
Generative AI in Professional Services
I went to a party in San Francisco recently, where I met one person who said she worked at Harvey, a startup that’s using generative AI to help lawyers operate more efficiently and automate parts of legal work. The legal profession is pretty well suited to large language models and generative AI. It’s based mostly on rules, laws, and other dense, complicated text. Legions of law firm associates usually spend years learning how to parse and interpret this information for clients. Now, all this content, along with decades of legal decisions and other records, is being used as training data to develop specialized AI models and tools.
Impact on Law Firms and Consulting
The end result is tools like Harvey that can automate some of the busy work that previously bogged lawyers down, and could change how the entire profession operates. You know what other industry has AI potential? Consulting. The Big Four, Deloitte, EY, PwC, and KPMG, are investing in AI agents to "liberate" employees from thousands of hours of work a year. For instance, generative AI tools are pretty good at creating PowerPoint slide presentations.
News and Updates
Other BI tech stories that caught my eye lately include updates on Big Tech employee pay. This is based on an evolving, unscientific system I developed myself. Tim Cook probably breathed a sigh of relief after the US and China paused those really high tariffs. Although it’s not out of the woods yet, Apple stock jumped this week. Google is in an antitrust quagmire, and ChatGPT may be eating into its prized Search business.
Trying Out AI Tools
This is the time each week when I try an AI tool. Is it better than what I could have done myself? Was it faster and more efficient than asking a technical colleague for help? I started off simple. I asked ChatGPT (Enterprise 4o) to create an image that sums up the past week in tech. I told it to use Business Insider style. The image is not bad, but not amazing. The Samsung blue blob logo is floating by itself down there. Why? Who knows?
User Feedback
I would love to hear from anyone who reads this newsletter. What am I doing wrong? What do you want to see more of? Specifically, though: This week, I want to hear back from folks who work in professional services, such as lawyers and consultants. Attorneys: What’s your experience been with Harvey AI and similar AI tools so far? Has this tech helped you get stuff done faster and better for clients? Or not?
Conclusion
In conclusion, the use of generative AI in professional services such as law and consulting is becoming increasingly popular. Tools like Harvey are automating busy work and changing the way these professions operate. As AI technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how it impacts the future of work in these industries. We want to hear from you, so please share your thoughts and experiences with us.
