Published in: Herald Newsroom | March 2026
Herald AI GILW26; those three words now mark a genuine milestone in our journey. This week, our CEO, Elijah Khalikov, took the stage at the Geneva International Legal Week 2026 and presented Herald AI’s vision to one of the most influential gatherings of legal professionals in Europe. The response confirmed what we have long believed: cross-border succession is an area ready for transformation, and the legal community is ready to have that conversation.
Herald AI at GILW26: Setting the Scene
The Geneva International Legal Week 2026 is a premier gathering of legal professionals, in-house counsel, and pioneers organised by the Geneva International Legal Association (GILA), held across multiple venues in central Geneva from 9 to 11 March 2026.
The main topics across the three days covered commercial disputes and Swiss law, in-house counsel and young litigators, and, critically for Herald AI, technology and digitalisation on Wednesday 11 March.
Herald AI GILW26 participation placed us directly in front of the legal and legal-tech community at the moment the conversation turned to technology and the future of legal services. It was the right room, on the right day, with the right audience.
What Herald AI Pitched at GILW26
Elijah Khalikov presented Herald AI as an AI co-pilot purpose-built for legal experts handling cross-border inheritance cases. The pitch addressed a problem every practitioner in the room recognised immediately: international succession work is manual, fragmented, and time-consuming, not because lawyers lack expertise, but because the administrative and jurisdictional complexity is genuinely overwhelming.
Herald AI’s mission is straightforward: reduce that manual complexity so that lawyers, notaries, and wealth advisors can focus on expertise rather than process.
The platform brings together three components that work in concert:
- Case Workflow Engine — structured case management for multi-jurisdiction succession matters
- AI Legal Intelligence Layer — retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for legal research and document analysis built specifically for inheritance law
- Expert Collaboration Layer — enabling legal professionals to collaborate efficiently across borders and jurisdictions
Every element of the Herald AI GILW26 pitch centred on one principle: the expert is always in control. H
The Insight That Stood Out: AI and Expert Control
The strongest signal we received from the GILW26 audience was the response to our human-in-the-loop model. There is genuine and growing interest among legal professionals in how AI can support highly specialised legal workflows, but only when experts remain firmly in control of the decision-making process.
This is not a new concern. GILW26 featured a dedicated round table on the challenges posed by AI governance and the deployment of responsible AI across various sectors Gillieronavocat, a conversation that ran directly parallel to what Herald AI presented in our pitch.
Across the broader legal tech community in 2026, there is a noticeable shift in how the industry is redefining trust, the focus has moved from exploring what AI might do to determining how it fits into the day-to-day reality of legal workflows, with a growing recognition that AI is only as reliable as the data it is built on.
Herald AI is built for exactly that standard. Our RAG-based architecture minimises hallucination risk by grounding every AI output in verified legal sources. Our GDPR and nFADP compliant infrastructure ensures that sensitive case data is protected at every stage. And our human-in-the-loop model means that no AI output reaches a client or a court without expert validation.
Why Cross-Border Inheritance Is Ready for Transformation
One of the most resonant moments in the Herald AI GILW26 pitch came when we described the daily reality of cross-border succession practice. Managing an estate that spans multiple EU jurisdictions, with assets, heirs, and applicable laws in different countries, involves navigating EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 (Brussels IV), the European Certificate of Succession, questions of habitual residence and choice of law, and the specific succession rules of each relevant member state.
GILA aims to enhance Geneva’s position as a go-to international hub for law and legal services, and Geneva is, by definition, one of the most active centres for exactly this kind of cross-border legal work. The practitioners in that room deal with these cases regularly. The complexity we described was not abstract to them; it was their Monday morning.
Herald AI reduces that friction by combining AI-assisted legal research, structured case management, and collaborative tools into a single platform built specifically for succession law. For more on the EU legal framework governing cross-border cases, visit the European e-Justice Portal, the official EU resource for inheritance practitioners.
What Legal Tech Professionals Are Saying About AI in 2026
The Herald AI GILW26 pitch landed in a broader legal tech conversation that is accelerating rapidly. AI is no longer experimental in legal practice, it is operational. Across sessions, demonstrations, and conversations at major legal events in 2026, the focus has shifted from exploring what AI might do to determining how it fits into the day-to-day reality of legal workflowss.
The message is clear: the legal profession is not waiting. It is actively integrating AI into practice, and the platforms that win will be the ones that combine genuine domain expertise with responsible, verifiable AI outputs. That is precisely the space Herald AI occupies.
What Comes Next for Herald AI
The Herald AI GILW26 pitch was one milestone in a series of steps we are taking in 2026. We are currently in the seed financing stage, with pilot programmes planned across European notarial and legal markets later this year. We are also progressing through the >>venture>> Startup Competition 2026, where we are targeting the top 10 in our vertical ahead of the April 16 results.
The conversation around legal tech is only getting started. Cross-border succession is an area ready for transformation, and Herald AI is building the platform to lead it.
A sincere thank you to the Geneva International Legal Association (GILA) and the entire GILW26 audience for the opportunity to share our vision and engage in such thoughtful discussions about the future of legal services.
Follow us for updates as we continue building Herald AI. 🌐 herald-ai.legal
About Herald AI
Herald AI is a cross-border inheritance AI platform purpose-built for lawyers, notaries, and wealth advisors navigating complex succession cases across Europe. The platform combines a RAG-based AI Legal Intelligence Layer with a Case Workflow Engine and Expert Collaboration Layer, keeping legal professionals in control at every stage. Currently in the seed financing stage, Herald AI is actively engaging with the European legal and investment community ahead of its 2026 pilot launch.
Follow Herald AI’s journey as we continue building the platform transforming how Europe’s legal professionals handle cross-border inheritance.
→ Learn more about Herald AI | → Contact us
#Herald AI GILW26
