Recently, Supio Founder & CEO Jerry Zhou joined hosts Bob Simon and Mauro Fiore on the Bourbon of Proof podcast, alongside Atlanta trial attorney Brandon Smith, for a wide-ranging conversation about personal injury law, legal craftsmanship, and what AI means for the future of the profession.
Between pours of bourbon and plenty of laughs, the episode cut straight to the questions PI lawyers are really asking:
- Is AI just hype?
- Does it replace judgment, or sharpen it?
- And what separates tools that sound impressive from ones that actually help lawyers win cases?
From Fourth-Grade Friends to Building Supio
Jerry shared the origin story behind Supio, one rooted less in technology trends and more in lived frustration.
After years at companies like Microsoft and Avalara, Jerry and his co-founder Kyle stepped away to build something meaningful. As first-generation immigrants, Jerry described how nearly every interaction with the legal system felt opaque and unpleasant.
“Every single interaction I ever had with legal stuff growing up was hard. It wasn’t a great user experience. And we kept thinking, there has to be a better way to help people through this.”
Before writing a line of code, the Supio team spent over a year speaking with 200+ lawyers across practice areas. What surprised them most was how different personal injury law was from everything else.
“We spent about 12–18 months speaking to hundreds oflawyers across all the different practice types. And then we met personal injury lawyers like Brandon, and it just clicked. These were our people.”
Why Personal Injury Law Is So Hard to Automate
From the outside, PI law looks simple. In reality, it’s incredibly complex.
Most cases involve a web of medical nuance, causation questions, missing records, and narrative risk.
Mauro summed it up bluntly:
“People think PI is easy—rear-end car accidents, simple stuff. It’s not. PI is incredibly complex, and there are so many moving parts. It’s a hard way to make an easy living.”
Jerry echoed that sentiment, explaining why most AI tools break down in this space.
“The biggest mistake companies make is underestimating how complex the work really is. It’s not just finding text, it’s knowing what actually counts as proof.”
Is an injury established by a passing chart note? A pathology report? A diagnosis buried across multiple records? That nuance, Jerry explained, takes a lot of time and intentionality to get right.
AI as a Power Tool, Not a Replacement
A recurring analogy throughout the conversation: AI shouldn’t replace the craft of law—it should amplify it.
Jerry described the shift like moving from hand tools to power tools:
“It’s almost like the transition between using manual tools and power tools. It’s like you don’t have to drill with your hand anymore, you’ve got the power drill now.”
That framing resonated with Brandon, who spoke candidly about how his firm thinks about AI adoption.
“In my office, that’s one of the things we’re preaching: that artificial intelligence is always improving. That’s why we look at AI.”
Standing Out in a Crowded AI Market
The hosts didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room: legal AI is crowded.
Every conference floor is packed with tools promising speed, scale, or instant results. Jerry’s take? Competition is healthy, but durability matters more than noise.
“This is a gold rush moment for legal AI. A lot of companies will come and go. The hard part is being persistent—actually building something that lasts.”
What Supio is betting on, Jerry explained, is depth over flash.
“We’re one of the rare companies that does what we say we’ll do, and we’ll do it on real cases, not just demos.”
A Conversation Worth Listening To
Yes, there’s bourbon. Yes, there are side quests into Dungeons & Dragons, baseball, and Spanish beach towns.
But at its core, this episode of Bourbon of Proof is an honest, unscripted look at where personal injury law is headed, and why the future belongs to tools that elevate human judgment rather than replace it.
If you want to see what that future looks like with your own cases, you can book a demo of Supio here.
