As part of its thoughtful launch to deliver Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities through services, IBM has begun to partner with different companies in different fields, including law. (Full disclosure—Legal OnRamp is working with IBM on Watson with help from Dan.) This is an interesting go-to-market approach for IBM, to create an ecosystem around a nascent technology, with analogues to Google search or Apple’s iTunes (or for the true aficionados, to Salesforce’s Appforce).
Many imagine Watson might displace lawyers for legal reasoning. We believe that systems like Watson are very unlikely to displace the reasoning processes of lawyers. But it’s equally true Watson may illuminate how rare it is that lawyers have to solve “bespoke” reasoning problems, and how common it is to apply “proven” approaches in slightly different contexts. But Watson doesn’t have to displace legal reasoning to have an impact.
