Awdry Law accelerates productivity with Philips SpeechLive
UK-based legal practice Awdry Law showcases how choosing the dictation and transcription tool Philips SpeechLive — with its built-in speech recognition and integrated AI assistant — boosted accuracy and efficiency, prompting a rethink of traditional workflows in the process
Awdry Law switched to Philips SpeechLive to modernise its dictation and transcription workflows with integrated speech recognition. For the first time, speech recognition was built directly into their workflow, with no toggling between platforms and no added setup. The seamless onboarding, powerful AI Assistant and intuitive interface quickly led to widespread adoption, time savings and improved support staff productivity.
The challenge
Awdry Law’s previous setup, a combination of multiple tools for dictation and transcription, was functional but fragmented. Without built-in speech recognition, even short dictations needed multiple tools and manual review, often resulting in limited customisation and support staff spending hours transcribing.
The team was also cautious about changing established workflows, so any new platform had to prove its benefits quickly. With their current solution up for renewal in just two weeks, the team urgently needed a new solution that could be integrated quickly and would deliver immediate value.
The solution
After discovering SpeechLive at a legal tech event, Awdry Law saw it as the perfect fit for their needs. The integrated AI Assistant and ability to trial directly from the website were especially appealing — within two weeks, the entire firm had switched over.
Paul Walshe, partner at Awdry Law, UK, says: “A 2-hour transcription was done in 10 minutes with SpeechLive — and it was flawless.”
The results
- Time savings. Built-in speech recognition, which allows for real-time transcription without switching tools, and AI summarisation turned a 45-minute dictation into a polished draft in just 10 minutes. Previously, this had been a 2-hour manual task.
- Reduced operational costs. There’s no need for separate Dragon licenses or local server infrastructure, resulting in both direct and indirect savings (e.g. fewer IT resources needed).
- Enhanced productivity. The SpeechLive AI Assistant frees up time for support staff by completing necessary manual tasks, reducing the need for additional hires even as new lawyers join.
- Cultural shift. While some resistance remains, the clear efficiency gains are winning staff over and prompting a rethink of traditional workflows.
- Feature highlights. Features such as Smart Transcript and Summaries were especially valuable in speeding up documentation creation and understanding from long-form dictations.
- Ease of use. Having audio, transcript and summary in one place made review faster and easier. Walshe says: “the ease of use was the tipping point. Just a few clicks to engage the AI assistant. It changed how we work.”
Turning feedback into features
One of the most striking aspects of Awdry Law’s experience with SpeechLive was how quickly the product team responded to user feedback.
During rollout, the Awdry team highlighted the need for easy rewind and fast-forward controls in the mobile app, which are essential for accurate review during dictation playback. The SpeechLive product team acted immediately — the feature was designed, developed and added directly to the app within weeks.
Awdry Law’s experience underscores the importance of intuitive design, responsive support and seamless deployment in driving tech adoption: highlighting how a speech recognition powered solution like Philips SpeechLive can simplify workflows, reduce costs and eliminate transcription bottlenecks in legal environments.
