Robert Ambrogi Blog
Hence Technologies has unveiled Hence Global, an AI-powered platform designed to help businesses and their legal counsel manage geopolitical uncertainties by providing customized risk analysis and insights tailored to specific business roles and needs.
Launched last week, the platform aims to address what the company describes as “the unruly collision of politics, technology, and law” manifesting in shifting political landscapes and market volatility.
The platform analyzes millions of news items daily and maps them to each user’s specific business context. For example, it can provide different analyses regarding trade tariffs for an energy company’s general counsel versus its head of government affairs.
“Our data pipeline analyzes millions of global news items daily,” said Julio Maniratunga, Hence’s head of engineering. “Custom entity recognition models extract key actors, events and regulatory shifts, mapped to each user’s unique business context.”
In addition to alerts and analysis, the platform can generate practical outputs such as board memos for stakeholder communication. Law firms are already using the system to generate client alerts tailored to their expertise, the company says.
Several early adopters include law firms Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman LLP and Three Crowns LLP, along with organizations such as the International Council on Mining and Metals and Capitol Peak Strategies.
“In today’s climate of market fluctuations and escalating international tensions, understanding and effectively managing the risks of changing political, legal and technological systems is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for business resilience,” said Sean West, co-founder of Hence Technologies and author of UNRULY: Fighting Back When Politics, AI and Law Upend the Rules of Business.
The company says that a key principle behind its product is that it makes sophisticated global analysis accessible to businesses of all sizes, not just those with large resources for geopolitical intelligence.
A key principle driving Hence Global is the desire to make sophisticated global analysis accessible to a wider range of businesses.
“For too long, smaller companies have been priced out of this critical intelligence, leaving them vulnerable to global events,” said cofounder Steve Heitkamp. “Hence Global levels the playing field, meaning companies everywhere can be equipped to operate anywhere.”
First founded in 2020, Hence is headquartered in London, but has a significant engineering presence in Kigali, Rwanda, and team members cross the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands.
Cofounder West was formerly global deputy CEO of Eurasia Group, a leading global affairs advisory firm, where he advised CEOs, general counsel, and investors on geopolitical and legal risk.
He will be my guest on the LawNext podcast episode coming out next week.