When Thomson Reuters acquired ThoughtTrace in 2022, it scooped up a software provider that relied on artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze documents and contracts for sector-specific use cases in industries like real estate and energy.
The company also got a future chief technology officer out of the deal.
Joel Hron, who had served as CTO of ThoughtTrace at the time of the acquisition, came into the fold at Thomson Reuters as a VP of technology to spearhead integration into the larger company’s ecosystem that includes the Reuters news agency and various tools sold to legal, tax, and other corporate professionals.
By 2023, Hron became head of AI and Thomson Reuters Labs, a decades-old research and development group whose work was dramatically changing as the generative AI boom was leading companies to rethink their approach on AI. During Hron’s tenure, TR Labs accelerated hiring and launched seven generative AI products in 18 months, including AI assistants for legal research and contract drafting.
That group still reports to Hron, who ascended to the CTO role in July 2024. Using the lessons he learned as an outsider who joined Thomson Reuters via an acquired startup, Hron is now helping to steer an aggressive M&A strategy that will continue to see more newly acquired technologies and teams added to the roster.
