For years, the legal industry has discussed the potential of artificial intelligence. Automated research tools, contract analysis platforms, and document review software have become common in large firms. But recently, a new concept has emerged: the AI legal agent.
Unlike generic AI chatbots, an AI legal agent is designed to function as an intelligent teammate for lawyers. It doesn’t just answer questions—it manages intake, organizes workflows, handles repetitive Q&A, routes requests, and ensures that legal teams can focus on the strategic work that matters most.
The idea moved from theory to reality quickly. Just a couple of months ago, the LegalTechTalk Hackathon powered by McKinsey & Company crowned its winner: a first working prototype of an AI legal agent built for in-house legal teams. That moment demonstrated something powerful: Legal departments don’t just need better tools; they need an AI-powered teammate. With this I mean its not enough to provide lawyers tools powered by AI. It´s the lawyers who need to be powered by AI.
Since then, we have moved fast from hackathon demo to pilots with real customers. Transition from a legal Hackathon to real value added to real laweyers has been extremely fast.
An AI legal agent is a specialised AI system that can act autonomously or semi-autonomously to support legal professionals. Well, at the end, legal agent does not support legal professionals, but rather all the other people and organization around, the people that need legal support. Many times its the sales organization, sometimes its the logistics or Support requesting details on the SLA.
Whereas traditional software requires lawyers to adapt their workflows to the tool, an AI agent adapts itself to the way lawyers already work. Think of it as a coordinator and executor—one that never forgets, never gets overwhelmed, and never leaves a request unanswered.
An AI legal agent can:
In other words, it’s not just a knowledge engine but also a workflow manager.
Even in the best-run organizations, legal work often feels messy. In-house lawyers deal with:
The result? Lawyers lose time, and the business waits too long for advice.
AI legal agents exist to change this dynamic. By taking over the noise, they organize chaos into clarity and ensure that legal guidance is not only faster but also more consistent across the organization.
Every lawyer knows the pain of intake. Requests arrive in all shapes and sizes, often incomplete or vague. An AI intake agent can:
This makes the AI agent a legal intake coordinator AI agent—a role that saves countless hours.
Regulations demand that consent is tracked, stored, and retrievable. An AI legal consent agent can:
Global businesses often require multilingual legal documents. An AI agent can:
This is where terms like legal document translation scheduling AI agent come into play.
In larger organizations, legal doesn’t operate alone. An AI legal agent team setup allows agents to coordinate across multiple workflows:
FeatureTraditional Legal SoftwareAI Legal AgentIntakeManual forms or emailsAutomated intake + clarificationsQ&ALimited knowledge baseLearns from past answers, applies instantlyDocument HandlingStorage onlyTranslation, scheduling, routingEscalationsSpreadsheet trackingAutomated reminders + ownershipAdaptabilityLawyers adapt to toolTool adapts to lawyers
Traditional software digitizes legal work. AI legal agents transform it.
When the LegalTechTalk Hackathon powered by McKinsey announced its winner, it wasn’t a generic legal chatbot—it was an AI legal agent prototype for in-house legal.
The message was clear: legal teams don’t just need answers; they need an intelligent teammate.
Startups like Adeu have since advanced from prototype to pilots with real customers, showing how AI legal agents can:
The most famous example in this space is Harvey AI, backed by OpenAI and used by major law firms. Harvey focuses heavily on litigation and research.
By contrast, AI legal agents like Adeu target in-house corporate legal—where the biggest pain points are intake, Q&A, and workflow management.
The future will likely see multiple specialized legal agents emerge:
Each tuned to the specific needs of its legal environment.
The next chapter in legal technology isn’t just about automation. It’s about AI teammates.
Imagine a world where:
That world is being built right now—with AI legal agents at the center.
Let’s put numbers to the scenario.
A global B2B company has 15 salespeople, each managing 10 active RFPs or sales projects—that’s 150 cases running in parallel. Each case generates on average two legal questions per month, which means 300 questions flowing into the legal department monthly.
Now the math gets serious:
And the cost isn’t just time. In competitive B2B markets, delays kill deals. If only 10% of sales cases stall or fail due to slow legal responses, that’s 15 opportunities lost each month. With an average deal size of €50,000, this equals €750,000 in lost revenue—every single month.
An AI Legal Agent turns this around:
The result? Lawyers reclaim hundreds of hours, sales cycles accelerate, and millions in potential revenue are no longer lost to legal bottlenecks.
Legal work will always require human judgment, strategy, and negotiation. But the day-to-day chaos—scattered files, ad-hoc requests, repetitive Q&A—doesn’t need to consume lawyers’ time anymore.
AI legal agents are stepping in as intelligent teammates, turning chaos into clarity and revenue.
The question is no longer if legal teams will adopt them, but when.
And when that adoption happens, the firms and departments that measure their workflows today will be the ones best prepared to integrate tomorrow’s AI agents effectively.
Because in the end, understanding how lawyers really work—what tools they use, when, and how much—is the foundation for getting the best out of AI.
We’ve moved from hackathon prototype to real-world pilots in record time. Join the legal teams already testing Adeu’s AI Legal Agent and be part of shaping the future of in-house legal. Inhouse AI Agent by Adeu.
