NetDocuments Announces ndMax Assist and Semantic Search
NetDocuments announced the expansion of its ndMAX AI-powered capabilities, which will provide legal professionals with a cloud platform that delivers intelligence, automation, and security at every level.
ndMAX Assist is a new intelligent agent that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to help users work more efficiently and effectively with their documents. NetDocuments PatternBuilder MAX customers – over 13,000 users worldwide - can experience ndMAX Assist in a closed beta shortly following ILTACON, with wider availability coming later this year.
The new intelligent agent enables users to interact with NetDocuments through natural language commands and queries to find information, answer questions in documents, create summaries, and easily draft responses or revisions to content.
“We’re excited about ndMAX Assist and how it creates an easy, accessible way for legal organisations to introduce AI-powered capabilities into their everyday workflows,” stated Josh Baxter, CEO of NetDocuments. “Having an intelligent agent inside NetDocuments gives users another way to securely interact with their documents through generative AI without needing to transfer content into another platform. This is another example of how we're committed to helping legal professionals do their best work - with greater precision and confidence.”
ndMAX Assist also includes a Microsoft Copilot integration, enabling users to submit queries to Copilot, which can reach into NetDocuments while respecting relevant content permissions, ethical walls, and other organization-specific security measures when generating a response.
Additional AI Capabilities – including Semantic Search – on the Horizon
The NetDocuments Company Update at ILTACON showcased several upcoming enhancements for the ndMAX AI and automation portfolio. Jill Schornack, Vice President of Product, NetDocuments, discussed the immediate roadmap for ndMAX Assist and PatternBuilder MAX, highlighting features such as specialised agents for common tasks like contract analysis and review, automated document classification, and the ability to initiate any PatternBuilder MAX automation from the ndMAX Assist agent.
Additionally, as announced at the ILTACON G100 (top 100 law firm CIO program), NetDocuments will bring semantic search capabilities to its platform in the first half of 2025. “We believe this is a critical capability for helping customers search their content more effectively, moving beyond keywords to true natural language search and returning the results that legal professionals expect,” said Dan Hauck, Chief Product Officer, NetDocuments, noting that more information will be shared at their upcoming user conference, Inspire, in October.
Unifying the Experience Across the Microsoft and NetDocuments Platforms
ILTACON 2024 conference attendees are also getting an early preview of the next-generation NetDocuments experience. Atticus, NetDocuments’ new design system based on Microsoft’s Fluent framework, enhances the user experience across the platform. The consistent design between NetDocuments and Microsoft applications offers significant benefits, including faster and easier adoption for new users. NetDocuments users can complete tasks with minimal guidance, leveraging their familiarity with Microsoft applications.
Some of the recently enhanced next-generation experiences include:
- ChatLink for collaboration in Microsoft Teams
- ndMail for email filing and document sharing in all versions of Outlook, including Microsoft 365 (the “new Outlook”)
- Microsoft Word add-in to enable easy access to document automation capabilities, expanding to include core document management in the coming months
As announced in May, NetDocuments will also add desktop co-authoring to the platform. This will allow users to easily collaborate on documents using popular Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
“From AI-powered solutions within ndMAX to the daily experiences of users working across Microsoft 365 and NetDocuments, our strategy focuses on removing barriers and creating more consistent, intuitive experiences. This enables legal professionals to complete routine tasks more quickly, tackle complex work more effectively, and explore new, more efficient ways of working. As a result, lawyers can deliver superior value to clients and stakeholders,” added Schornack.
About NetDocuments
NetDocuments is a leading cloud-based content management and productivity platform that helps legal professionals do their best work. Backed by 25 years of experience in cloud innovation, NetDocuments offers a complete end-to-end platform for document and email organisation and management, including award-winning automation and AI capabilities; robust security, collaboration, and search technologies; seamless integrations with other tools professionals use daily; and a suite of large language model AI-powered solutions with the security and guardrails to manage AI responsibly. NetDocuments supports over 7,000+ law firms, corporate legal departments, and public sector entities globally.
