Interview: Genie AI’s CTO on legal SaaS and the democratisation of contract law

Company Overview - Genie AI is a UK-based legal AI startup that has successfully transformed its business strategy over the past five years, positioning itself among notable disruptors in the legal sector such as Harvey AI, Robin AI, Luminance, Clio, and Legora [1] - The company was founded in 2016 by Nitish Mutha and Raffi Faruq, who met during their Masters in machine learning at University College London [3] Business Strategy and Market Position - Initially, Genie AI aimed to build solutions specifically for law firms, which helped in raising venture capital and establishing a niche in the legal AI market [2] - The founders recognized that to truly transform the legal industry, they needed to understand the motivations of stakeholders, particularly that law firms prioritize billable hours, making efficiency gains less appealing [5] - This realization led to a strategic pivot towards serving end users of legal services, thereby accessing a larger enterprise market [6] Product Development Challenges - As Genie AI grew, it faced challenges due to the diverse and complex legacy technology stacks of individual law firms, which complicated the development of a universally applicable tech product [7] - The company decided to focus on creating a single legal AI platform that could cater to a wide audience, despite investor advice suggesting otherwise [8]