How Legal Torch is Revolutionizing Small & Medium Business Operations

Discover how AI-powered legal solutions are helping 6 million Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) save £11 billion annually in unaddressed legal needs.

8 min readJul 2, 2024

Key Takeaways:

• Micro-businesses face significant challenges in accessing affordable and efficient legal services, with 50% handling legal issues internally without professional assistance.

• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face an estimated 11B USD worth of unaddressed legal needs annually. VAIOT aims to close the market gap by implementing solutions like Legal Torch.

• Legal Torch offers AI-powered contract creation and management, reducing costs and complexity for micro businesses and SMEs.

• The platform provides access to customizable legal contracts, automated contract reviews, and secure blockchain-based storage to be implemented in future versions.

• Legal Torch’s natural user interface and AI-driven assistance make legal processes more accessible to non-experts.

• By streamlining legal operations, Legal Torch helps micro businesses and SMEs save time and resources, allowing them to focus on growth.

The Challenge of Legal Accessibility for Micro Businesses

Micro-businesses and SEMs form the backbone of many economies, yet they often struggle with legal complexities that can hinder their growth and success. According to LawTechUK, In the United Kingdom alone, over 6 million small and medium-sized enterprises, companies with fewer than 50 employees (SMEs) face an estimated 11B USD worth of unaddressed legal needs annually. For many micro business owners, legal services seem like a luxury they can’t afford. According to LawTechUK, 50% of SMEs handle legal issues internally, without any formal legal assistance. This approach often leads to costly mistakes and missed opportunities.

Maria, a freelance graphic designer transitioning to a small agency, shares her experience:

“When I started taking on bigger projects and hiring contractors, I needed proper contracts. But the thought of hiring a lawyer for each agreement was overwhelming, both financially and time-wise.”

30% of SMEs in the UK report dealing with at least one legal issue each year. Due to the existing gap in legal support and tools to help businesses, the underdressed legal services market is valued at 14B USD annually. Yet, existing tools in legal tech only address a portion of about 5.4B USD. This means that there is still a significant space for growth. VAIOT, the provider of Legal Torch, aims to close the market gap by creating technology to support multiple users, including businesses to address their legal needs.

Legal Torch: Democratizing Legal tools for SMEs

Legal Torch, developed by VAIOT, addresses these challenges head-on. By leveraging AI and blockchain technology, this solution makes legal transactions more accessible, affordable, and efficient for small and medium enterprises.

So how can a business owner take the most from this solution?

1. AI-Powered Contract Creation and Management

Legal Torch’s AI-driven system allows users to create customized legal documents quickly and accurately. The platform uses an AI searching mechanism that identifies the type of contract people need through natural language processing. To guarantee compliance, the contracts in the platform are delivered by professional, licensed lawyers through VAIOT’s collaborator, Grant Thornton (one of the largest consultancy companies in the world).

“With a tool such as Legal Torch, I would be able to draft professional contracts in minutes,” Maria explains.
“It is quite impressive how the AI can guide me through the process, asking relevant questions and suggesting clauses based on my specific needs. It will be like having an assistant at my fingertips.”

2. Cost-Effective Legal Solutions

Traditional legal services can be prohibitively expensive for micro-businesses and SEMs. According to the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, 75% of the registered businesses are family-owned in this country. Micro-businesses with up to 9 employees are often too small to afford legal support. Yet, the constitution of such has varied legal needs such as:

Employment contracts
Non-disclosure agreements
Intellectual property protection provisions
Trademarks and patents
Business contracts

AI-powered tools such as Legal Torch can make business operations more manageable and cost-efficient by granting access to compliant contracts and draft analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional legal services.

3. Automated Contract Review and Risk Assessment

Legal Torch’s AI can review contracts, help people to create risk-free contracts and access dispute resolution. This feature is key for micro-businesses and SMEs engaging in negotiations with larger entities. 96% of SMEs in the UK regularly experience debt and commercial disputes that cost around 12.4B USD per year. Initiatives like the EU’s Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) system, have reportedly boosted e-commerce’s trust by up to 22% (Slaw, 2024), demonstrating that businesses and consumers can benefit from legal tech tools. Whilst there has been a rise in company-specific dispute resolution systems, such as Amazon’s internal process, there are limited services in legal tech that SMEs can take advantage of.

Legal Torch will address the needs of consumers, entrepreneurs, micro-businesses and SMEs by leveraging AI and blockchain technology to support transparent agreements with its integrated decentralized dispute resolution system (DDRS by VAIOT).

4. Secure Document Storage and Management

SMEs and bigger organizations encounter an increasing amount of pressure to reduce costs and improve company performance. Contract management and secure storage, are priorities that need to be addressed despite being time-consuming and often insufficient.

A study by World Commerce & Contracting indicates that an average cost of poor contracting is equal to losing 9.2% of that organization’s annual revenue. By leveraging AI and blockchain technology, users of future versions of Legal Torch will be able to use VAIOT’s AI legal assistant to create smart contracts to ensure legal compliance and precision when defining contract terms. Legal Torch provides a secure, tamper-proof storage solution for legal documents.

There are plans for further integration of blockchain tech to allow users to create smart contracts without previous technical knowledge. This ensures that micro-businesses and SMEs can easily access and manage their legal paperwork without worrying about data breaches, loss or the quality of the agreements.

5. User-Friendly Interface for Non-Experts

One of the most significant barriers to legal services for micro-businesses and SMEs is the complexity of legal language. Legal Torch addresses this with its user interface, making it easy for non-experts to navigate legal processes.

John, a small café owner, shares his thoughts: “I always found legal documents intimidating. The solution Legal Torch is proposing is worth exploring. I can see already how it can make a significant impact on the way I manage my business’s operations”

The intuitive interface will explain legal terms in plain language and guide users such as John through each step. The objective is to give people like John the necessary tools to manage their businesses more effectively by helping to sort through the documents required and ensure agreements are airtight.

6. Time-Saving Automation

For business owners juggling multiple roles, time is a precious commodity. Legal Torch’s automation features streamline processes, freeing up valuable time for core business activities.

“The ability to quickly and easily automate workflows helps companies achieve faster time to value, whether by reducing case handle time, boosting conversion rates, providing faster quotes, expediting client onboarding, or streamlining order processing.”

— Juan Pérez, EVP and CIO of Salesforce (cited in Harvard Business Review, 2024).

How AI impacts business operations, Oracle Netsuite, 2024

The Impact of Legal Torch on Micro Businesses and SMEs

By making legal tools more accessible and affordable, Legal Torch empowers micro businesses and SMEs to operate with greater confidence and security. The platform’s features address key pain points:

• Cost Reduction: Micro businesses can access professional-grade legal supportat a fraction of traditional costs.

• Time Efficiency: Automated processes and AI assistance significantly reduce the time spent on legal matters.

• Risk Mitigation: Improved contract management and dispute resolution to help businesses avoid costly legal mistakes.

• Compliance: Access to up-to-date legal templates helps ensure compliance with current regulations.

• Scalability: As businesses grow, Legal Torch can accommodate increasing legal needs without a proportional increase in costs.

The Future of Legal Technology for Micro-businesses and SMEs

As the LegalTech market continues to grow, with projections reaching up to $68 billion by 2034 (Future Market Insights, 2024), solutions like Legal Torch are poised to play a crucial role in democratizing the access to legal tools. By bridging the gap between businesses and affordable legal support, Legal Torch aims to make a significant contribution in the Legal Tech industry by empowering its users. As more micro businesses adopt such innovative legal tools, we can expect to see a more level playing field, where businesses of all sizes can thrive with proper support.

About VAIOT

VAIOT offers a portfolio of blockchain-based AI Assistants and on-chain Intelligent Contracts for businesses and consumers to provide automated services and transactions. VAIOT- AI and Blockchain for Legal Innovation.

Read our AI Legal Assistant Lightpaper here.

For more information about VAIOT, visit our website www.vaiot.ai, or join our Twitter , Telegram Community, Discord Server or Youtube Channel for continuous updates.

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