Finalists: BigHand; Forensic Risk Alliance (highly commended); FTI Consulting; Intapp; LexisNexis; ObjectiveManager

RAVN Systems' development of artificial intelligence (AI) tech landed it the Supplier Innovation award for technology.

RAVN's AI system can help law firms sift through large and complex amounts of document data, a job that would traditionally need to be carried out manually by teams of junior lawyers.

The system is able to read, extract and summarise information much faster and more accurately and consistently than humans, freeing up time for staff to work on other projects.

This can help boost profit margins as more work can be completed in less time, and eliminate the need for hiring temporary staff to meet tight deadlines.

It can also help improve staff morale as employees no longer have to perform dull, repetitive data-extraction tasks. Matthew Whalley, head of legal risk consultancy at Berwin Leighton Paisner, says RAVN's AI tech has enabled his firm to complete work in seconds that would previously have taken a team of people more than three months to finish.

"Good to have an example of real exploitation of technology in this area. There's an awful lot of talk [about AI] and this may only be a small step up from clever search, but it is impressive nevertheless," a judge remarked.

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