Orbital Witness, a lawtech company, has introduced a pioneering insurance-backed accuracy guarantee for its generative AI (GenAI)-driven title-checking product. This is the first insurance of its kind globally and it effectively outsources the compliance demands for law firms to be comfortable using the technology.
The policy, provided by First Title Insurance, will initially underwrite Orbital Witness’s residential property product. This means that in the event of an error resulting in a compensation claim, the law firm would not have to claim on its own professional indemnity insurance. The policy matches the minimum cover required by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, which is £2m, and is an optional add-on costing less than £10 per policy.
The Orbital Witness system checks title documentation and highlights issues the conveyancer needs to consider, such as a short lease. It produces its report in about a minute. The company’s technology is used daily by over 4,000 lawyers and property professionals, including the real estate teams at all five of the magic circle law firms and the UK’s largest conveyancing and remortgage businesses.
Co-founder Ed Boulle stated that First Title spent a significant amount of time last year examining the technology before agreeing to underwrite it, and would continue to evaluate it. He added that the burden was on law firms to satisfy their regulator and their own insurers that any new technology was safe to use and would not create additional risks to their clients. He believes that insurance isn’t just about downside protection, it can also help with the burden of compliance. The insurer was able to undertake more due diligence than any one law firm could, Mr Boulle explained.
Orbital Witness is also looking at extending the technology to searches, TA6 forms, and other documents. Mr. Boulle added that they might be the first AI provider to integrate insurance into their product, but they won’t be the last. He believes that insurance will, and indeed, should form part of the framework within which businesses will be expected to use AI in a way that is guaranteed, financially accountable, and compliant.
Read more: insideconveyancing.co.uk
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