AI Agents for Legal: From Promise to Practice

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🟦 Editor’s Brief

If GenAI was the warm-up act, AI agents are the main event—redefining the very core of legal work.

We’re entering an era where intelligent systems don’t just generate content but plan, execute, and continuously improve workflows on their own.

Why does this matter now more than ever?

According to the 2025 Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report:

• Over 80% of legal professionals expect AI to transform their work within five years.

• Yet only 22% of organizations have a clear AI strategy in place.

• Those with a defined strategy are 3.5x more likely to see a measurable ROI.

Agentic AI is already proving indispensable—helping legal teams draft documents, triage intake, analyze contracts, and surface insights faster than any human team could.

But this isn't just about tools. AgentOps—the discipline of designing, governing, and optimizing AI agents—is quickly becoming the operational capability every in-house legal team will need.

In this issue, you’ll find:

• Where AI agents are already working in legal workflows

• What “good” implementation looks like

• The pitfalls that can derail even well-funded programs

Because AI agents aren’t just the future—they’re here.

Ready to see where your team stands?

👉 Take the Legal AI Readiness Assessment

🟦 The Pulse: GenAI vs. Agentic AI—What’s the Difference?

Generative AI is great at one-off content creation:

• Drafting documents

• Summarizing research

• Answering direct prompts

Agentic AI goes further.
It’s designed to:

• Break down big objectives into smaller steps

• Execute decisions autonomously

• Integrate across tools and data sources

• Stop and escalate when human judgment is needed

Put simply:
- GenAI is a smart assistant.
- Agentic AI is an autonomous project manager.

Here’s how they compare:

Insight: The most effective teams combine GenAI to create and Agentic AI to execute, driving measurable productivity gains. The real winners won’t be those who buy more tools but those who orchestrate them into a unified, intelligent system.

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🟦 Stack Spotlight: Tools Bringing Agentic AI to Life

Here are a few platforms that illustrate how agentic systems are moving from slide decks to daily operations:

• Tonkean LegalWorks
  Automates intake, triage, and approvals with multi-step orchestration.

• Harvey Copilot & Agent Modules
  Conducts research, summarizes insights, and iterates drafts with minimal input.

• Ironclad AI
  Manages end-to-end contracting workflows, including negotiation and routing.

• Spellbook
  Embeds agentic drafting inside Word, providing real-time, context-aware suggestions.

• Thomson Reuters CoCounsel
  Purpose-built agent trained on legal domain standards for high-trust workflows.

🟦 The Ops Playbook: 5 Use Cases to Start With

1. Matter Intake & Triage
   Agent classifies, routes, and auto-responds to requests—reducing errors and delays.

2. Contract Drafting & Redlining
   Generates drafts, checks compliance, and flags deviations from templates.

3. Regulatory Monitoring
   Scans laws across jurisdictions, alerts teams, and suggests first steps.

4. Knowledge Management
   Auto-updates internal guides, surfacing best practices in context.

5. Client Onboarding
   Collects, verifies, and organizes application data across systems.

Pro Tip: Start with high-volume, low-risk workflows to build trust and demonstrate ROI early.

🟦 In Their Words

🟦 The Deep Take: Why AgentOps Matters

Leading LegalTech CTOs and industry analysts observe that agents are poised to transform legal operations from mere document management to proactive knowledge management and intelligent workflow automation.

Agentic AI does what traditional automation never could:

• It plans work, not just executes tasks.

• It integrates across tools, not just in silos.

• It learns and adapts over time, improving itself with each cycle.

But the upside comes with new questions:

• Who is accountable for autonomous decisions?

• How do you audit and validate outputs?

• How do you measure success?

AgentOps is how you build answers to those questions—from governance to metrics to cultural readiness.

If you haven’t yet, take 10 minutes to benchmark your readiness:

👉 Legal AI Readiness Assessment

🟦 Calendar Watch

Stay ahead with these key gatherings:

• ILTACON 2025
  August 10–14, 2025 | National Harbor, MD, USA
  The premier educational event for legal IT and operations, with deep dives into AI, agentic workflows, and knowledge management.
  👉 Register

• 8th World Legal Tech & AI Summit
  September 18–19 | Berlin, Germany
  From GenAI to agentic orchestration—get the big picture on what’s next.
  👉 Explore

• General Counsel Summit US 2025

  September 2025 | New York City, USA
  The Economist’s flagship event for GCs and in-house legal leaders, focusing on strategy, innovation, and leadership.
  👉 View Agenda

• Future Lawyers USA 2025
  October 29–30, 2025 | Virtual & Chicago, USA
  Exploring the future of law, legal innovation, and emerging technologies shaping the profession.
  👉 Learn More

🟦 Share the Advantage

If this issue sparked ideas, pass it along to a peer tackling the same challenges.

Next Edition: The Legal AI Readiness Blueprint—How to Benchmark Before You Buy

Published weekly by Advanta Legal Tech. Feedback or partnerships? Contact us at [email protected]