LTH Product Briefing – ClearPeople’s Atlas

Atlas is an Intelligent Knowledge Platform for Microsoft 365 trusted by legal and professional services firms worldwide. Atlas converts Microsoft 365 into a contextual intelligence hub, utilizing enterprise AI to provide precise insights. It enhances knowledge management by automatically tagging and unifying content from Microsoft 365, iManage, NetDocuments, and other repositories into a centralized, AI-powered platform. Seamlessly integrated with Microsoft 365, Atlas captures and classifies information from multiple sources, delivering authoritative answers directly in the flow of work. With customizable AI frameworks designed for legal teams, Atlas aims to streamline workflows, boosts productivity, and reduces the time spent searching for information. 

Scroll down to see the product briefing video associated with this article. 

Background of ClearPeople and Atlas 

Founded in 2003, ClearPeople has evolved from a consulting firm specializing in content services for knowledge management into a legal technology provider. The company was established by Gabriel Karawani and Katya Linossi, who initially focused on building solutions around early versions of SharePoint and large-scale document management systems. Over the years, their expertise in knowledge management, document management, and intranet development set them apart, leading to high-profile projects for companies like Toshiba. 

Stephen Bedford, the Head of Product at ClearPeople, joined in 2018 with a mission to transform the firm’s bespoke SharePoint solutions into scalable, marketable products. One pivotal moment came when ClearPeople won the Nielsen Norman Group’s Intranet of the Year award for their work with Korn Ferry. Recognizing the potential for a broader application of their technology, the leadership team decided to pivot from a professional services firm to a product-first company. This transition culminated in the launch of Atlas, a knowledge management platform designed to centralize information, improve collaboration, and enhance searchability within law firms. 

Addressing the Persistent Challenge of Knowledge Management 

The primary problem Atlas aims to solve is a longstanding issue in legal and corporate environments: the difficulty of finding and organizing knowledge. Despite significant investments in Microsoft 365 and other enterprise software, firms often struggle with information retrieval, leading to inefficiencies and wasted time. Atlas tackles two fundamental challenges: 

• Findability – Users frequently express frustration over their inability to locate critical documents and information. Atlas ensures that knowledge is easily discoverable within a firm's existing ecosystem, reducing reliance on manual searches and internal support requests. 

• Content Management – Many professionals face uncertainty regarding where to store documents, how to categorize them, and how to share them across teams. Atlas eliminates these barriers by providing structured yet flexible content governance and seamless taxonomy tagging. 

Practical Use Cases and How Atlas Delivers Value 

Atlas is designed to serve as a firmwide knowledge management platform, built on Microsoft 365 to provide robust intranet and extranet capabilities. As a platform, its capabilities are broad. Some key use cases include: 

• Legal Knowledge Management: Law firms can use Atlas to centralize legal precedents, research materials, and templates, ensuring lawyers have immediate access to critical resources. 

• Business Development: Atlas can support business development teams by organizing RFP responses, tracking past proposals, and surfacing relevant expertise within the firm. 

• Matter Management & Client Collaboration: The platform enables firms to create secure extranets where clients can access documents, track matter progress, and collaborate with attorneys in real time. 

• Automated Content Tagging & Retrieval: Leveraging an intelligent taxonomy system, Atlas automatically tags content and presents it contextually based on a user’s role, location, or ongoing projects 

The Role of Generative AI in Atlas 

Atlas incorporates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, utilizing models including GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini (and soon to include OpenAI o1) to enhance knowledge retrieval and automation. The AI-powered capabilities in Atlas allow for add-on use cases to be built out using a no-code interface. The GPTs that can be created in this way are numerous. Some real-life examples include automated document summarization, natural language search, and the ability to find and locate expertise.  

Atlas AI acts as an assistant within the platform, tapped into data sources so user questions are contextualized and relevant information can be retrieved in response to queries. AI-driven analytics help to identify subject matter experts within a firm based on past work, publications, and experience. The AI assistant can interpret outside counsel guidelines and flag potential compliance risks in billing and document creation. 

Target Demographics 

While the utility of Atlas is applicable across industries, ClearPeople typically targets law firms and professional services firms with at least 1,000 Microsoft 365 seats. The platform is ideal for organizations dealing with high volumes of legal content, regulatory compliance requirements, and cross-team collaboration challenges. 

Geographically, ClearPeople has historically focused on the UK market, but has expanded significantly into the U.S., the UAE, and other regions. The company predominantly aims to serve mid-to-large-sized law firms, corporate legal departments, and professional service firms that require advanced knowledge management solutions beyond basic intranet functionalities. 

How Atlas Stands Apart from Competitors 

There are a number of providers offering knowledge management and intranet solutions. In this field, Atlas differentiates itself through: 

• Seamless Microsoft 365 Integration – Unlike standalone KM tools, Atlas is deeply embedded within Microsoft’s ecosystem, making adoption simple for firms already using SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook. 

• Automated Taxonomy & Tagging – Atlas eliminates the need for manual tagging or a standalone additional taxonomy and curation tool by applying AI-driven metadata, significantly reducing administrative overhead. 

• Flexible Content Contribution & Access – The platform accommodates multiple workflows, allowing users to interact with knowledge repositories in ways that align with their preferences. 

• AI-Enhanced Knowledge Retrieval – The built-in AI assistant provides contextual recommendations, reducing noise and surfacing only the most relevant information, enabling firms to generate precise AI answers from critical content. 

• Enterprise-Wide Application – Unlike many KM systems designed for specific departments, Atlas is built for firm-wide deployment, ensuring accessibility across legal, business development, and operational teams. 

ClearPeople plans to expand Atlas’s capabilities, including enhancing AI functionality, expanding API integrations, and exploring standalone AI product offerings beyond the Atlas platform. The company envisions “Atlas Everywhere,” a concept where Atlas’s AI assistant can be embedded across various Microsoft 365 applications, ensuring knowledge is accessible wherever users work. 

While AI-powered KM solutions continue to evolve, ClearPeople’s focus on practical AI applications, seamless M365 integration, and user-centric design make Atlas an attractive proposition for legal and professional services firms seeking a broad knowledge management solution.