AI is the buzzword on every board agenda right now – but what does it actually mean for in-house legal teams doing more with less?

The answer isn’t another shiny tool. It’s smarter workflows – and that’s where AI agents come in. Think of them as tireless virtual colleagues who can take repetitive work off your plate, integrate across platforms, and scale your legal ops without adding headcount. Sound too good to be true? Let’s break it down.

What are AI agents, exactly?

AI agents are digital systems designed to autonomously carry out specific tasks based on a set of goals. Unlike traditional bots or chat tools, they don’t just spit out answers – they act. That means:

• Responding to emails.
• Generating first drafts.
• Summarising documents.
• Triggering workflows.
• Pulling data across tools.

All based on intent and context, not just keywords.

Crucially for in-house lawyers, AI agents can be embedded across legal and business systems to automate low-value work while keeping humans in the loop for high-stakes decisions.

Where legal ops can plug them in

You don’t need a moonshot AI strategy to get started. Here’s where we’re seeing legal teams deploy agents with real impact:

1. Contract intake and triage

AI agents can field intake forms or shared inboxes, identify contract types, assign risk levels, and route them to the right person or playbook – no more bottlenecks or inbox chaos.

Bonus: You can train agents to trigger NDAs for low-risk requests or escalate complex redlines, keeping the legal team focused where it matters.

2. Playbook-driven drafting

Think of agents as on-demand junior lawyers. Feed them a contract playbook and they can:

• Generate first drafts.
• Pre-populate templates from CRM or HR systems.
• Suggest fallback clauses based on deal context.

And they’ll get smarter with every iteration – spotting patterns, flagging deviations, and freeing up lawyers to focus on negotiation strategy, not formatting.

3. Policy compliance and approvals

Whether it’s marketing review, vendor onboarding, or employee requests, agents can automate the grunt work:

• Cross-checking inputs against policy.
• Populating approval workflows.
• Notifying stakeholders.
• Logging decisions for audit.

Instead of chasing business teams, legal becomes an enabler – fast, consistent, and auditable.

4. Knowledge management

Legal knowledge is only useful if people can find it. Agents can:

• Surface guidance from previous matters.
• Draft responses based on precedent.
• Suggest relevant documents to upload or update.

No more trawling through shared drives or chasing legal for ‘that clause we used once in 2021’.

Common blockers – and how to navigate them

Rolling out AI agents isn’t plug-and-play. Here’s what can trip teams up (and how to steer clear):

• Messy data: AI is only as good as the inputs. Start by mapping your workflows, cleansing your templates, and tagging your documents consistently.
• Shadow tools: If legal is using ten platforms but the business lives in Slack or Salesforce, agents won’t bridge the gap. Integrate where people work.
• Fear of ‘robot lawyers’: Bring the team along early. Make it clear agents aren’t replacing lawyers – they’re freeing them up to focus on strategic, meaningful work.

So… where do you start?

You don’t need to boil the ocean. Start small and build:

1. Pick a high-friction workflow (e.g. NDA triage, vendor approvals).
2. Define what ‘good’ looks like (speed, consistency, risk reduction).
3. Deploy an agent in a sandboxed way, with clear rules and human oversight.
4. Measure and iterate. What worked? What didn’t? Where’s the value?

As confidence grows, expand to other processes – and integrate with tools your teams are already using, from contract lifecycle platforms to ticketing systems.

AI agents won’t replace lawyers but lawyers who use them will thrive

In a world where budgets are tight, workloads are ballooning, and business teams expect answers yesterday, AI agents offer a practical way to scale legal services without burning out your team or blowing your budget.

And the best part? You’re not starting from scratch. The data, the knowledge, the processes – they’re already in your ecosystem. AI agents just help you connect the dots faster.