Lawyers gain 10,000 hours in productivity as AI-powered document reading tool REI processes data from over 300 local authorities in England & Wales

• Search Acumen, developer of Real Estate Intelligence (REI), reports law firms have saved approximately 10,000 hours of manual review time since launching the tool in November 2024
• REI has read approximately 225,000 individual pages of CON29 forms to date, at a rate that is 80% quicker on average compared to manual review
• Since launch, REI has been used by leading law firms to analyse search data from 317 different local authorities across England and Wales
• The scale of this achievement marks a paradigm shift for lawyers handling complex real estate transactions, as REI brings unprecedented speed and accuracy to property due diligence.

Search Acumen, has announced that its local authority document reading tool, Real Estate Intelligence (REI), has created time efficiency savings of approximately 10,000 hours for real estate lawyers to date.

Since its launch in Q4 2024, REI has processed more than 225,000 individual pages of CON29 documents to date. Using REI, reviewing a commercial CON29 search takes only 10-15 minutes, compared to an average of 1¼ hours when processed manually. This means law firms are gaining around 65 minutes of productivity per title..

REI has  processed extracts from 317 different local authorities in England and Wales in the last 16 months, revolutionising how property lawyers tackle complex property portfolio deals in the commercial real estate and social housing markets which extend across multiple local authorities.

Commercial real estate lawyers using REI have reported significant benefits, including enhanced accuracy and lower error-rates. UK law firms are estimated to lose up to £19.1 million annually due to avoidable errors in property applications. By adopting AI-driven, automated solutions like REI, firms are not only making critical productivity savings, but efficiency savings too.

Andrew Lloyd , Managing Director at Search Acumen, says:

“They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in something. Think of all of the additional problem solving and value real estate lawyers could be bringing to clients with the time saved by REI in just over a year.

“Since launch, REI has helped law firms save thousands of hours and tackle complex deals with ease. There is no longer a need to slog through endless paperwork and manage multiple different search formats. What used to take over an hour now takes just minutes, freeing up valuable time and boosting productivity by up to 80%.

Not only are real estate lawyers gaining time, but they’re also saving on costly mistakes, which can add up to millions each year. REI is changing the game for commercial real estate and social housing lawyers, and we’re excited to keep driving innovation as the industry moves further into the digital age.”