Katie Pecho, Relativity: Scaling Smarter: An Energy Legal Team’s Progression to AI-Driven Work

Key Takeaways

• AES launched AI pilot for legal contracts in 2022.
• Relativity provided platform to standardize AI workflows for AES.
• Partner PLUSnxt guided risk management and governance framework.
• Scalable AI foundation reduced contract review time by 30%.

Pulse Analysis

The legal function is one of the fastest‑adopting fronts for generative AI, and energy companies are no exception. When ChatGPT entered the public eye in 2022, AES saw an opportunity to automate routine contract reviews, regulatory filings, and risk assessments. Rather than a blind leap, the firm prioritized data hygiene, model validation, and secure integration, laying a "basement" that could support future AI layers. This disciplined approach mirrors a broader industry shift where legal teams treat AI as a strategic asset rather than a novelty.

Relativity’s cloud‑native platform became the backbone of AES’s AI rollout, offering a unified repository for contracts, metadata tagging, and model orchestration. By leveraging Relativity’s pre‑built connectors, AES could feed structured data into large‑language models while preserving audit trails. PLUSnxt, a specialist in AI governance, helped craft policies around model bias, data privacy, and regulatory compliance—critical concerns for a sector overseen by entities such as FERC and the EPA. The partnership ensured that AI outputs were not only fast but also defensible in court and during regulator reviews.

Early results suggest a 30% reduction in contract review cycle time and a noticeable drop in manual compliance errors. Those efficiency gains translate into lower legal spend and faster project execution, giving AES a tangible market advantage. Moreover, the playbook—foundation first, partner‑led risk management, then scale—offers a template for other energy and heavy‑industry firms navigating AI’s promise and pitfalls. As AI models become more capable, the legal tech market is poised for accelerated growth, with vendors and consultancies racing to provide end‑to‑end solutions that balance speed, accuracy, and regulatory safety.