In 2016, we embarked on a bold journey at Libryo, predicting a future where all law would be platform delivered. Inspired by tech pioneers, we envisioned revolutionary changes in legal content and regulatory services. This blog post revisits our initial claims, highlights our progress, and explores the enduring questions that continue to drive our innovation.

The Bold Prediction

In 2016, when starting on the Libryo journey, we made the claim in our first blog, that one day all law would be platform delivered. This was adapted from the claim of Salesforce founder, Marc Benioff that one day all software would be web-based. When Benioff made that claim, software was not cloud-based but installed locally on computers and office servers. Now, just about every credible software company offers software that is accessible and updated via the Internet.

In that same year we anticipated the rise of AI, following for example, the then charitable incorporation of OpenAI, the power of the crowd and the inevitable rise of web-based platforms to more efficiently deliver services of all kinds, not only those offered by the pioneers Airbnb and Uber.

“At Libryo, we are constantly working on the next generation of regulatory services. We walk the exciting interface of AI and HI (human intelligence). It's an exciting place to be. It's almost like a dance. And more and more, we realize just what breakthrough technology can do to help us in our quest...”

Open Questions from Then 

In the blog we asked some difficult open questions that we continue to grapple with and seek to answer.

• Can't software help us simply to know the answer to the question "what does the law require me to do here?"
• Why does one have to be trained as a lawyer to know what the law says for any given thing? I mean, how can you keep the law if you don't have access to the law?
• Is law so complicated that regulatory complexity has led to regulatory failure?
• Does legal complexity undermine the rule of law, especially in the context of developing nations?
• Does legal complexity prevent those who need justice the most, the poor and oppressed, or even the environment, from justice?
• Can we democratize law and legal and regulatory services?

Where is Libryo now?

Articulating Our Purpose

We have better articulated our purpose: “ensuring everyone knows what to do for a just and sustainable world.” It’s bold and aspirational, focusing on our desire for justice and sustainability. You cannot fault us for audacity.

Launching Libryo Collaborate

We launched Libryo Turks, later rebranded to Libryo Collaborate. This gig platform, built for EHS and sustainability consultants and law students, allows flexible contributions to the creation of Libryo content assets.

Joining Forces with ERM

Wonderfully, in late 2022, Libryo was acquired by the world’s largest pure-play sustainability consultancy, ERM. This made sense in so many ways, ERM has the largest army of sustainability consultants with deep sustainability skills including sustainability regulatory services as their superpower. What better home for the next chapter of the Libryo Platform? And what a great choice by ERM as it rides the wave of AI, enabling its global team with technology to increasingly offer value-added services from the platform of technology and regulatory content provided by ERM Libryo!

Introducing AI to ERM Libryo Collaborate

In 2023, OpenAI’s GPT hit the mainstream as ChatGPT. Many Large Language Models (LLMs) have since been launched, and the pace of development is staggering. Significantly, AI has become a collaborator in ERM Libryo Collaborate, with many of our first-step content creation tasks now performed by AI and checked by human collaborators!

Increasing Corporate Sustainability Regulations

The wave of new corporate sustainability reporting or disclosure regulations continues to increase in size and the world’s largest companies have a clear intention to know what the law requires of them, and to know what they need to do to comply.

That sounds a lot like our purpose!

If the world’s largest companies with the power to operate justly and sustainably are seeking to know what’s required, then given the developing “machine, platform, crowd story of ERM Libryo,” the trajectory toward answering our foundational questions affirmatively is surely positive!

ERM Libryo has proven to be an invaluable tool for organizations navigating today’s regulatory and sustainability challenges. Discover how our solution can enhance your operations with a demonstration of ERM Libryo.