A bot for divorce and separation? Absolutely.

We’ve just launched our beta of Lumi, our personal separation guide. Lumi is a bot who has expertise in law, mediation and counselling, and was created to provide people with a more constructive and accessible way forward when relationships breakdown. It is available to use right now and is entirely free. 

As a social impact startup, our vision is for Lumi to help one million people across the world who are going through separation and divorce. Amongst these will be the 71% of Australians who currently do financial settlements with no access to legal advice, taking an average time of 1-2 years. This is a mounting global access-to-justice issue and an area of immense need which is chronically underserved by technology. 

If you’re curious about Lumi, read on. Otherwise you can just talk to Lumi yourself right now (if you're a professional who just wants to play around, use this demo link).

Can a bot really guide someone through divorce and separation?

I’ll admit that this is a fairly outrageous idea and we weren’t sure if it would work - but our trials so far have shown that:

1. People are indeed willing to talk to an AI-based virtual agent about highly sensitive, emotional and complex topics.
2. These conversations have the ability to make a significant impact on the quality of their outcomes.

As a world-first which is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with conversational interfaces, developing Lumi hasn’t been without its challenges. But what we’ve already achieved has convinced me that this will be the model for how people will deal with areas of emotional, legal and financial complexity in the future. This is a new entry point that simply didn’t exist before. For some, it will be all they need. For others, it will provide the initial entry point and then connect them to the human professionals they need to bring things to resolution.

What is Lumi?

Unlike most of the bot technology currently out there, this isn’t a glorified FAQ. Lumi guides people through a detailed confidential conversation about their situation and then prepares them a personalised step-by-step plan with all the information, templates and resources they need to legally finalise things in a way that is positive and constructive. Using a holistic, interdisciplinary approach, Lumi talks people through basics like financial settlements and parenting agreements; but it also addresses the human side of things such as the state of their relationship and helping children to cope with the transition. Lumi then provides support for each step of the process over the months following that initial conversation.

The concept for Lumi came out of a deep unmet need that we discovered when doing a research study into the separation experience of Australian couples. Participants repeatedly reported beginning their separation journey with a mutual desire to resolve things amicably, but then losing their way due to the lack of clear steps forward, conflicting information and a reluctance to use lawyers. 

Lumi has been designed to be the first port of call; the first person you talk to for the steps and guidance you need to prevent the inevitable slide into a life of protracted limbo. As a collaboration between lawyers, mediators, technologists and psychologists, Lumi has been built from first-principles as a holistic experience that focuses on human needs. A large part of Lumi’s role is in normalising people’s experience and helping them to focus on the future. An important part of this holistic focus is of course the law. As much as Lumi encourages an amicable, human-centred process, everything drives towards sound, legally-finalised outcomes in the form of consent orders, parenting plans and divorce applications. 

For those who need more help, Lumi provides introductions to lawyers, financial planners, accountants and counsellors. Couples can also switch to Adieu Assist to resolve everything in 4-6 weeks with independent legal advice, a neutral mediator and our award-winning consensus accelerator.  

Why try to do this using a bot?

When people think of obvious applications of AI-based bot technology, they imagine things like parking tickets and simple legal questions. They certainly don’t think of areas of high emotion and complexity like family breakdown. After all, these are situations that even human experts struggle to resolve. 

Not only do I see potential for helping those going through divorce and separation, I think there are a number of reasons why this is the perfect area to apply this technology. 

1. Most people actually want to do the right thing.

Contrary to popular belief, most separating people aren’t looking for revenge and don’t actually want to fleece their ex. In our experience, the vast majority of separating couples start out with good intentions about how they’re going to go about things but lack a constructive way forward. Fear and uncertainty quickly cause things to deteriorate, so early intervention and fast resolution can make a big difference to the quality of the outcomes. 

If we can empower people to resolve things amicably, they will. 

2. It’s accessible.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of accessibility when it comes to issues that involve stigma, shame and emotional paralysis. The breakdown of a relationship involves a grieving process, similar to that of when someone dies; this creates an emotional barrier to moving forward. Add to this the practical barrier of sorting out a financial settlement, parenting agreement and divorce application, and you’re staring down the barrel of a process that typically takes years to resolve (in Australia a financial settlement takes 1-3 years, a divorce takes 3.7 years). This creates a state of paralysis that many in our research described as ‘living in limbo’. People literally do nothing for years; and when they do, it's often in fits and starts. If they talk to a lawyer at all, it can take time to build up resolve, get recommendations and make an appointment. It’s common for couples to agree at the outset that they won’t use lawyers - and this adds an additional sense of betrayal and escalation of conflict that needs to be overcome. 

Lumi on the other hand has the lowest barrier to entry possible. Not just physically, but psychologically. Talking to Lumi is not a betrayal. It has a sense of anonymity to it. It comes with no cost or commitment. It can be done at anytime, from anywhere, on any device. You can go from deciding to talk to Lumi to being in a conversation in just a few seconds.

The aggregate of all these tiny things is the difference between doing something and doing nothing. 

3. It’s scalable.

The sheer scale of this challenge makes it very difficult to address in any meaningful way without a stupendous amount of resources and coordination. This is one of the reasons it’s quickly becoming a global crisis. One of the key questions we constantly ask ourselves as a social impact startup is “will this scale?".

Lumi can talk to a thousand people at once without breaking a sweat. Every time we learn something or tweak the process, everyone benefits instantly. Most of Lumi’s value isn’t specific to a jurisdiction, so it has the potential to benefit people around the world. 

As an Australian startup, this allows us to have lofty, world-changing ambitions. To talk about helping not hundreds or thousands, but millions of people around the globe.  

What does this mean for you?

You can access Lumi here right now (again, if you're just curious about how it works, use this demo link rather than the live version).

If you know someone who could benefit from Lumi, please stop reading for a moment and share this with them now. These kinds of ideas need to spread by word of mouth, so help us get the critical mass of awareness it needs to really take off.

If you’re a professional who comes into contact with separating couples, sign up for early access to Lumi for Professionals. This is a new concept we’re currently developing which will enable you to work in conjunction with Lumi for your existing clients, and have Lumi find and refer new clients to you. This can work for anyone, but will be particularly interesting for lawyers, financial advisers, accountants and counsellors.

If you're a not-for-profit or government organisation who helps separating couples, you might also be interested in working with Lumi and can contact me on LinkedIn to discuss further. 

We’re really excited about the possibility this has to help people around the world, so please share and get it in front of those who need it most.