Let's talk about Harvey

Among legal tech startups, Harvey.ai is a dominant predator. They've raised a ton of money, hired an esteemed team, struck the most high-profile partnerships, announced big customer wins, and have the ambition of serving every legal practice area.

So for legal builders, it's notable when Harvey unveils their web presence, as they did last week. It's a chance to understand their feature set and focus, and learn something about where the market is heading.

Here are some points that struck me in Harvey's new site, and some takeaways for legal builders:

It's about the trust only they can provide

I appreciate the claim to victory in this headline, and note any lack of any claim as to quality or efficiency. Also note that we're not replacing your workflows, we're augmenting them with AI.

Takeaways: Be trustworthy. Be bold.

No more waiting

The celebrated waiting list is no more; now the CTA is simply a "Contact Sales" input box. Your law firm domain is all they need to figure out if you're worthy of a demo.

Takeaway: Waiting lists work when you have strong awareness.

It's not about OpenAI

The top pages of the new website mention OpenAI only as an investor, even though they were Harvey's most formative early partner. Does OpenAI remain a bit toxic following their botched early roll-out on data protection? Or does Harvey simply need to be agnostic as to what third-party models they might be using (more likely)?

Takeaway: If you're using OpenAI, how are you positioning it with prospects?

Harvey's not just about law

The title of the site is "Generative AI for Professional Services," which broadens this mission from the prior website title, "Generative AI for Elite Law Firms." Harvey's coming for accounting, consulting and the rest of the professional suite.

Takeaway: Focus on something and be better at it.

Some notable customer wins, but it's early

You can tell a lot from the list of customers and partners shown for social proof, even though the listing is likely incomplete. In Harvey's case, these include a mix of mostly global law firms (Reed Smith, Vinson & Elkins, McFarlanes, CMS, Cuatrecasas, A&O Shearman, O'Melveney, Gleiss Lutz, Vinson & Elkins), an accounting firm (PWC), and a couple of corporates (KKR, T-Mobile). (DIdn't see any mention of Addleshaw Goddard, Osborne Clarke, and Ashurst, who announced that they were considering Harvey back in August.)

Takeaway: It's a relatively small list. We're still in the early innings of this game.

Security is Harvey's middle name

They're going big on their claim to be "The most secure Legal AI platform." They back it up first with named and pictured experts (smart). They're using Vanta's security portal setup to gather and manage access to security documentation and audits.

Takeaways: Devote as much attention to security on your site as they do. Get on a security portal.

Feature differentiation isn't clear

Based on the website, Harvey's capabilities look comparable to competitors, like Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel. Frankly, it makes you wonder how much differentiation is possible among generic tools.

Perhaps here's a difference: "Harvey orchestrates hundreds of highly specialized models to complete full workflows beyond the scope of a single LLM, similar to how lawyers work together on complex matters." I can believe that you would knit AI functions together in different ways for different practice areas, if that's what they mean by workflow.

Takeaway: We're still in the early days of legal AI evolution. You're creating agents, not just models.

They're still hiring like crazy

Harvey's open job listings are full of interesting data. Most open reqs are in customer success. Several focus on the mid-market. Comparison salary data across positions and geographies.

Listings like this one give you a glimpse into Harvey's sales process.

Takeaway: You can always learn something interesting from competitor's job listings.

They're watching how your lawyers work

Notably, a primary feature of Harvey is reporting on professional productivity, at firm wide or user level.

Takeaway: Is GenAI a trojan horse for the automated supervision and analysis of professional performance?

Conspicuously absent

The new site makes no reference to how Harvey leverages a law firm's own data. Or relatedly how Harvey might integrate with document management and other firm systems.

Takeaway: In the end, success will require these integrations.

What's Harvey's impact on your project? Let's connect to discuss.