Machine learning aims to allow computers to be able to make more human-like decisions

Machine learning aims to allow computers to be able to make more human-like decisions

Global law firm DWF, which helps the in-house legal teams of large corporations, is another 

business now increasingly using the technology.

It was approached by a large real estate company that had an "impossible" task. The client wanted 10,000 property lease documents, stored on paper and electronically, and in different locations, to be digitalised into a central database.

This firm also wanted to know the exact terms of each of the leases, to discover new commercial opportunities.

"Traditionally, you would get paralegals under supervision to plough through the documents. But from a cost point of view it doesn't work, and also it's inconsistent," says Mark Qualter, chief executive of DWF's managed services division.

DWF designed an ML system to classify each lease document into categories, identify specific types of details, and then extract data from the document.