Just a couple of years after the disruptive potential of generative artificial intelligence hit legal technology, a new subset is emerging: AI agents. This software can perform tasks on its own — make decisions, take action or solve problems — with less human guidance than generative AI. And it will enable further cost savings and speed up processes.
At least, that is the promise.
Companies’ in-house legal departments were keen early adopters of generative AI. They explored opportunities for further automation of standard legal tasks, from reviewing contracts to checking that policies complied with regulations.
Now agentic AI is being touted as a potential next big step for taking the human out of legal tasks, thanks to its ability to undertake multi-step processes.
In-house legal teams are overwhelmed by the tasks they must undertake, says Ryan O’Leary, a legal tech expert at research company IDC. “If you can use [agentic AI] to take away the low-hanging fruit and the administrative stuff, it’ll certainly be a major win for the organisation.” But accomplishing more, and doing it faster, will depend to some extent on legal departments “kind of leaving AI to its own devices”. That would probably require less human oversight than generative AI, O’Leary adds.
