AI still feels like a mystery box for many in-house legal teams. It is exciting. It is powerful. It is changing fast. But how do you make it work for you – not in theory, but in the middle of a high-pressure day?

Here is the good news: it starts with prompting.

What is the big deal with prompts?

At its simplest, a prompt is just how you talk to an AI tool. The catch? Vague questions get vague answers. And when you are reviewing a contract under time pressure, you do not have time for guesswork.

Clear prompts are how you teach AI to think like your legal team. They translate your legal instincts into scalable instructions. Done well, prompting can create game-changing consistency – particularly for contract reviews, playbooks, and red flag checks.

Use the ICA framework: Identify – Check – Act

One simple approach works wonders for building prompts into legal playbooks:

• Identify – Point the AI to the right part of the contract (for example: “term of the agreement”).
• Check – Tell it what to look for (for example: “ensure the term is no longer than two years”).
• Act – Explain what you want it to do (for example: “amend the clause to a two-year term if needed”).

Think of it like delegating to a junior lawyer. Be specific, be structured, and do not assume anything is obvious.

Do not go big – go granular

It can be tempting to build one mega-prompt that tries to do everything. It sounds efficient but fails in practice.

Break your prompts into smaller, focused tasks. It is faster, cleaner, and more likely to produce what you need. Plus, it is easier to refine over time without unravelling the whole process.

Prompt libraries vs playbooks – what is the difference?

• Prompt library – Your collection of AI prompts across all kinds of tasks: drafting, summarising, researching, and more.
• Playbook – Your codified “rules of the road” for contract reviews. It includes fallback positions, risk thresholds, and deal-specific tweaks.

Both are useful. But the real magic comes from combining them – building playbooks with prompts baked in, then sharing across the team to drive consistency and scale.

Do not wait for perfection – start, test, tweak

One of the biggest blockers for legal teams? Perfectionism.

Your first attempt will not be perfect – and that is fine. AI workflows are meant to evolve. Get something working, test it, gather feedback, and tweak it. Treat it like a product, not a precedent bank. Unlike that dusty old folder, AI can learn from iteration.

Want real change? Make it someone’s job

If no one owns your prompt library or playbook system, it will drift. Fast.

Give someone responsibility for upkeep. Build it into their role. Measure it. Celebrate improvements. Make sure the system reflects business needs – not just legal preferences.

Your AI system is your product

Even if you are using someone else’s tech, how you configure, use, and scale it? That is your product. And like any product, it needs governance, maintenance, and champions.

The teams who succeed here are not just “using AI” – they are building systems around it.

Legal self-service is coming

AI is not just about making legal teams faster. It is about making other teams less dependent on legal.

The goal? Allowing commercial colleagues to self-serve – safely – on things like NDAs, playbooks, and clause libraries. It is not about replacing legal. It is about embedding legal DNA into the business.

(Think HR 10 years ago – that is where legal is heading.)

One last thing: discipline beats ideas

Every legal team has “update playbooks” on their to-do list. But unless you carve out time, it will not happen.

This is not just a nice-to-have. As AI adoption accelerates, leadership will expect legal to move faster, operate leaner, and bring metrics to the table. The pressure is coming – from your board, your execs, your clients.

The question is: will you be ready?