Smokeball Boosts Revenue Potential for Law Firms by up to 30% Using Gen AI on AWS

Smokeball's expertise in legal technology positioned it to address a critical need in the legal industry—elevating productivity through cutting-edge AI solutions. While digitalization had made significant progress, the company identified that innovative law firms required more sophisticated tools to optimize operations and enhance client service. 

To meet this need, Smokeball developed a strategy focusing on three key areas. First, it aimed to use generative AI for swift document processing and analysis. Second, the company planned to create automated client intake and onboarding systems. Third, Smokeball set out to develop precise, AI-driven time tracking and billing tools.

Initially, the company explored third-party AI options. Due to challenges with application programming interface (API) limitations and lack of direct support, Smokeball decided to find a more robust solution. The company needed a scalable cloud infrastructure that could securely manage vast amounts of sensitive legal data while providing state-of-the-art AI capabilities. Smokeball turned to AWS for its comprehensive suite of cloud services, including advanced AI and machine learning tools. These provided the scalability and support needed for rapid development and deployment.

Smokeball implemented its Smokeball AI platform by using specific AWS services to create three key tools—Archie, Intake, and AutoTime. Each tool addresses a critical area of legal practice management.

To tackle document processing time and analysis challenges, the company developed Archie, a matter-based AI assistant. Smokeball used Amazon Bedrock (Claude V3), a fully managed service offering access to high-performing foundation models through a single API, to equip Archie with natural language processing capabilities. This innovation provided swift summarization, analysis, question answering, and correspondence drafting. This saved between up to 3 hours each day on administrative tasks, boosting lawyer productivity.

The company also streamlined client intake and onboarding processes with its Intake tool. Utilizing Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed machine learning platform, Smokeball developed a system that processes and analyzes existing forms, automatically generating new, customized versions. This advancement cuts form creation and population time from one hour to just 5 minutes, significantly improving efficiency in client acquisition.

To address time tracking and billing needs, the company combined Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker to create AutoTime. The automated time-tracking tool not only reduces daily timesheet creation from hours to minutes but also helps lawyers capture up to 30 percent more billable hours, enhancing law firms' profitability.

To ensure robust performance, scalability, and security for its AI infrastructure, Smokeball strategically implemented additional AWS services. The company used AWS Lambda, a serverless compute service, to handle AI-powered responses without complex infrastructure management, streamlining operations.

Smokeball also integrated its AI with existing legal management solutions utilizing Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a fully managed message queuing service. This facilitates efficient data flow and task management across its platform.  

Identifying the need for scalability, Smokeball deployed Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), a fully managed container orchestration service. With this, the company can automatically scale its application infrastructure based on demand, delivering optimal performance during peak usage and cost-effectiveness during quieter times.

With the help of the AWS team, Smokeball developed and launched its generative AI tools in public beta within just six months. The company's successful implementation of its tools using AWS has set the stage for continued innovation in legal technology. Smokeball has experienced significant growth, particularly in the US market, demonstrating the global appeal of its AI-powered solutions.

Building on its achievements, the company plans to explore new applications for AI to enhance its offerings. One key area of focus is helping law firms with branding and marketing. Smokeball aims to develop generative AI-driven tools for creating targeted social media content and blog articles, providing even small firms with the means to maintain a strong online presence cost-effectively.  

The company is also assessing ways to incorporate data insights from existing solutions. By analyzing anonymized user data with AWS analytics services, Smokeball aims to provide law firms with valuable industry trends and operational insights, helping them make data-driven decisions to improve their practices. These initiatives enhance law firm efficiency and reduce legal costs, making quality legal services more accessible to clients.

“AWS has been crucial in helping us deliver on our mission. We've always aimed to transform how small and mid-sized law firms operate, and the cloud infrastructure from AWS has supercharged that effort. It's letting us bring AI capabilities to firms that previously couldn't access this kind of tech. But for us, it's not just about technology—it's about freeing lawyers to do what they do best. By automating the admin work, we're giving lawyers back time to focus on their clients and practice law. That's what really excites me. We're not just making firms more efficient, we're helping lawyers rediscover why they got into law in the first place,” said Mr Hunter Steele, Chief Executive Officer, Smokeball.