HSBC picks Harvey as legal AI spreads beyond major law firms

HSBC’s decision to roll out Harvey’s legal AI platform across its in-house legal function is another sign that legal AI is moving beyond law firms and into the operational core of large companies.

It’s also a major win for fast-growing Harvey. While the $8 billion-valued startup has already picked up dozens of elite law firm customers, adoption by a global bank of HSBC’s scale sends a clear signal that legal AI is firmly on the corporate agenda, and that Harvey is now gaining real traction with in-house teams.

Reimagining in-house

Legal AI is increasingly being treated as operational infrastructure rather than a niche productivity tool. HSBC will roll out Harvey across its in-house legal function, positioning the technology as part of the bank’s wider push to embed AI across its operations.

HSBC group chief legal officer Bob Hoyt said: "This isn’t just about deploying new technology - it’s about reimagining how an in-house legal function can operate by combining the speed and efficiency of AI with the expertise and judgement of our legal professionals.

It is an investment in a future where our lawyers can spend more time on strategic, high-value work to benefit our business colleagues and the customers they serve."

Beyond law firms

Harvey has been explicit about targeting professional services and enterprise legal teams, not just law firms. Its customer list already includes the likes of HubSpot, P&G, PwC and T-Mobile and Merck, reflecting demand for AI tools that can operate inside large organisations with heavy regulatory and contractual workloads. 

Rival legal AI platform Legora has followed a similar path. Its non-law firm customers include Deloitte and Erste Group, one of the largest banks in central and eastern Europe. Commenting on its rollout, Erste’s head of group secretariat and legal Robert Schmidbauer said: "In banking, trust is everything. Any technology introduced into the bank must meet uncompromising standards of security, accuracy, and intention."

These endorsements, particularly from the conservative banking industry, underscore the direction of travel and are likely to accelerate interest from other global corporates weighing similar investments.

That said, Harvey and Legora are not the only game in town. A growing cohort of platforms built specifically for in-house teams are embedding legal AI directly into everyday enterprise tools such as Slack and Google Docs, allowing sales, procurement and HR teams to access legal support without routing everything through legal.

Wordsmith and Legalfly are among the most prominent examples. Wordsmith counts Trustpilot among its customers, while Legalfly is used by European giants including SAP and Lufthansa.