Ralf, how do you currently see AI adoption evolving in legal work among Swiss SMEs?
Something very interesting is happening right now.
Adoption is accelerating rapidly — especially among HR departments, CFOs, CEOs, Heads of Administration, and fiduciaries.
Two years ago, many companies were still skeptical.
Today they suddenly realize:
“Wait… why are we still waiting days for answers to routine legal questions?”
And that is exactly where Jurilo comes in.
Many companies are seeing for the first time how much time, money, and organizational energy disappear into repetitive legal processes that often create very little strategic value.
Where do companies see the biggest benefit?
Interestingly, many customers initially talk about cost savings.
And yes — the savings can be significant.
But when you speak with them longer, another topic always comes up:
The time savings.
And they are enormous.
Mid-sized companies lose many months of productivity every year simply waiting for feedback on partially very simple legal questions:
Can overtime be compensated?
How should a warning letter be written?
What applies during sick leave?
What notice periods apply?
What are the legal risks?
How should a termination be handled?
These are often not highly complex strategic legal cases.
Yet processes remain blocked for days.
Why is this especially relevant in Switzerland?
Switzerland is unique.
Unlike in many other European countries, even SMEs here still spend large amounts of money on repetitive external legal work.
Hourly rates at major law firms are extremely high.
And so far, companies could still afford it because the Swiss economy overall has remained relatively strong.
But the first warning signs are clearly visible.
The Economist recently ranked Switzerland 41st out of 42 European countries in terms of economic growth expectations.
That matters.
Because it means companies will increasingly question every inefficient process.
A lot of money is still spent on repetitive work that frankly makes little sense anymore in the AI era — and is almost perfectly suited for systems like Jurilo.
You often say companies no longer want to pay for this kind of work. What do you mean?
Honestly:
Nobody enjoys paying premium hourly rates for repetitive standard work.
Not the clients.
And often not even the lawyers themselves.
Many law firms perform this work simply because the business model historically evolved that way.
But AI is now changing expectations dramatically.
Companies suddenly ask:
Why does this still take days?
Why is this still billed hourly?
Why are multiple emails still necessary?
Why can our internal teams not solve this directly?
This is not anti-lawyer.
It is simply the natural consequence of technology removing friction.
Does that mean Jurilo replaces lawyers?
No. That is far too simplistic.
Jurilo changes what lawyers are needed for.
Strategic negotiations, litigation, highly specialized matters, complex judgment calls, empathy during stressful situations — all of that remains extremely important.
But the repetitive operational layer in between is increasingly becoming automated.
It is similar to what happened with pocket calculators.
Accountants did not disappear.
But nobody wanted to continue paying premium fees for manual arithmetic accuracy.
How are HR departments using Jurilo in practice?
Very pragmatically.
We now see organizations managing hundreds of employees with relatively small HR teams — largely supported by Jurilo for labor law questions.
And only in truly critical or highly specialized scenarios do they go externally to law firms.
The speed difference is enormous.
Many HR leaders tell us:
“We now make decisions in minutes instead of days.”
And that reduces not only costs — but also organizational stress.
Why is speed becoming so important?
Because companies need to move faster.
If an employee issue arises, somebody is on sick leave, or a termination situation occurs, management cannot wait several days for basic clarity.
That uncertainty creates enormous operational friction.
And especially in HR, legal questions are often emotionally sensitive situations.
Fast, reliable answers reduce stress dramatically.
Do you also see resistance against systems like this?
Of course.
Every major technological shift creates uncertainty first.
But something interesting is happening:
Many lawyers themselves fully understand which types of work will become automated.
Because frankly, many lawyers do not enjoy spending hours on repetitive research work either.
The truly valuable legal work sits elsewhere:
strategy, interpretation, negotiation, judgment, and human guidance.
Why do you position Jurilo as a “Legal Decision System”?
Because that is the key difference.
Many systems simply provide documents or search results.
Jurilo was designed to help non-lawyers make actual operational legal decisions:
clearly structured, understandable, and verified.
That is especially important for Swiss SMEs, which often do not have in-house legal departments.
What do you think will happen over the next five years?
I believe we are only at the beginning.
Within a few years, it will become completely normal for companies to handle large parts of repetitive legal work internally with AI.
Not because companies want to replace humans.
But because the old model is simply becoming too slow, too expensive, and organizationally inefficient.
The companies that understand this early will become dramatically faster, leaner, and more competitive.
And honestly:
many organizations no longer even want to go back to the old way.
You recently wrote about law firms and AI. What was your main point?
The core idea was simple:
AI is not replacing lawyers.
It is changing what clients are willing to pay lawyers for.
The value shifts away from repetitive research work and toward strategy, interpretation, negotiation, and human guidance.
That article triggered a lot of discussion — especially because many lawyers already feel this transition happening themselves.
👉 “AI Is Not Replacing Lawyers — It Is Changing What Clients Want To Pay For”
