Transforming Legal Practices: The Emergence of Agentic AI
Imagine receiving a hefty 150-page agreement from a client with a pressing request to review and identify key negotiation points before tomorrow’s call. This task isn’t a singular effort but a series of interconnected activities: checking schedules, comparing clauses against playbooks, researching legal issues, assessing risks, and preparing negotiation notes. While AI already assists with many of these tasks, a transformative shift is underway. Instead of prompting AI at every stage, what if we could assign it a goal and let it manage the entire process? Enter Agentic AI.
From AI Assistants to Agentic AI
The distinction between AI assistants and Agentic AI is pivotal. While an AI assistant performs discrete tasks as instructed by lawyers, an AI agent can take an objective, orchestrate the necessary steps, adapt to new information, and involve the lawyer at specific review points. This goes beyond mere task assistance, transforming AI into a coordinator of legal endeavors.
Legal Work as a Process
The legal field has adopted AI faster than anticipated, with many lawyers already using AI to summarize judgments, draft clauses, explain legal principles, translate documents, and prepare correspondence. Although these tools expedite individual tasks, legal matters are more than a series of isolated tasks—they’re interconnected processes. For example, contract reviews involve verifying completeness, comparing against playbooks, identifying deviations, and assessing risks. Similarly, litigation involves reviewing pleadings, identifying evidence gaps, and preparing submissions.
The Role of Agentic AI
Agentic AI changes the landscape by taking a lawyer-defined objective and planning the necessary tasks to achieve it. Unlike traditional automation, which follows a predefined sequence, Agentic AI adapts to new information, carries context forward, and works within specified boundaries, involving lawyers when professional judgment is crucial.
Why Agentic AI Suits Legal Work
Legal work is structured yet requires judgment, making it ideal for Agentic AI, which offers controlled autonomy. It handles lower-risk tasks like organizing documents and comparing clauses, while more critical decisions involving legal advice and client interactions remain with the lawyer. This approach allows AI to manage the process, ensuring the lawyer’s expertise is focused where it matters most—on strategy, client advice, and decision-making.
The Real-World Impact on Legal Professionals
Lawyers are trained problem-solvers, yet much of their time is consumed by reviewing documents, building timelines, and preparing deliverables. Agentic AI can take on these repetitive tasks, allowing lawyers to concentrate on strategic aspects. This evolution doesn’t replace lawyers but reshapes how legal work is conducted, maintaining professional responsibility with the lawyer.
Agentic AI: A Step Forward
As legal technology evolves, Agentic AI offers an opportunity to rethink workflows—from instruction to outcome. By allowing AI to handle process responsibilities within defined rules, while ensuring legal judgment remains with the lawyer, Agentic AI represents a significant advancement in legal work efficiency.
Deepak Kapoor, CEO & Founder of Manupatra, encapsulates this evolution as another step in enhancing legal practice without compromising the necessity for legal expertise.
