The Red Ink Story

The journey of Red Ink began not in a tech startup’s garage, but within the walls of VISCHER, a leading Swiss business law firm. What started as a simple internal project in 2024 has quickly evolved into a powerful AI tool now poised for a commercial launch.

The catalyst was a classic case of necessity being the mother of invention. David Rosenthal, a partner of the firm, head of its Data & Privacy team and the firm’s legal innovation lab, found himself facing a double dilemma. First, the market for legal AI tools was failing to deliver. Existing solutions were either too costly, technically underdeveloped, or couldn’t guarantee the strict confidentiality required by legal professionals.

“Too expensive or not doing what we wanted them to do”

“I realized that no market solution adequately served our firm’s AI needs,” explains Rosenthal. “They were either too expensive, lacked a real business case, did not do what we wanted them to do, or simply failed to meet professional secrecy requirements. This market gap largely persists.”

The second trigger was a sudden, four-fold price hike from an AI translation service the firm depended on. This prompted Rosenthal, who has a background as a software developer, to take matters into the firm’s own hands. The firm built a simple Word add-in to handle translations at a fraction of the cost.

At the same time, the firm secured a groundbreaking contract with Google. This agreement allowed the firm to use the tech giant’s most powerful AI models while fully complying with Switzerland’s stringent professional secrecy and data protection laws – a first for any Swiss law firm. This meant they could use cutting-edge AI on any data, including sensitive client information, without legal worries.

From a simple translation tool to a feature rich AI tool

What began as a simple translation tool quickly grew. An Excel add-in followed, then one for Outlook, with new features being added continuously. By early 2025, Generation 2 was available at the firm.

“The simple Word add-in grew quickly. An Excel add-in followed, and later an Outlook add-in,” Rosenthal notes. “Although not created by a professional software company, the tool attracted third-party interest.”

The outside interest also led to a rebranding to “Red Ink”. In January 2025, even before its public availability, Microsoft pressured the firm to change the add-in’s original name, “Red Dragon”, alleging it being too close to its own brands. “David” did not want to fight Goliath over a name, though. In February 2025, Red Ink was made available for a public beta test to all interested third parties for free, with its code made public, too.