The Legal Potential of Agentic AI

Agentic AI looms as technology's next big breakthrough-in-waiting, yet skepticism over the technology remains in general and in the legal world. People want to understand what it is, how it works, and what to look out for. For lawyers, their questions have an added layer of intensity because they’re not just dealing with everyday business questions; lawyers work with sensitive client information and drive decisions that change lives and set the course of justice. 

So how will agentic AI potentially function in the legal world? Agentic AI has the potential to help the legal world with everything from drafting memos to doing contract analysis and research. In this blog, we consider the benefits that autonomous AI agents can promise to the business of law, as well as the substantial risks they may pose. 

Understanding Agentic AI

Agentic AI represents a fundamental shift in artificial intelligence—moving beyond passive assistants to systems that can "autonomously plan, reason, and execute multi-step processes following predefined objectives under human oversight and control." Unlike generative AI, which simply produces content based on prompts, agentic AI takes initiative and can execute instructions across various tools and platforms with greater independence.

According to IBM, these systems are distinguished by their ability to "maintain long-term goals, manage multistep problem-solving tasks and track progress over time" without constant human oversight. As Thomson Reuters explains, agentic AI can "dynamically adapt to changing circumstances, proactively seek information, and refine its outputs without constant human intervention." The technology works by combining "the flexibility and language understanding of large language models (LLMs) combined with the precision of traditional programming."

In practical terms, agents can "search the web, call application programming interfaces (APIs) and query databases, then use this information to make decisions and take actions." For law firms, this means AI agents could monitor court dockets and calculate deadlines, assist with discovery review, or draft documents with reduced human intervention.

The Promise for Legal Practice

The technology has "rapidly progressed from an experimental technology primarily confined to well-resourced law firms with dedicated data science teams into a more readily available tool for a broader range of legal professionals. (Thomson Reuters)" The potential applications are transformative for everyday legal work.

Thomson Reuters outlines practical use cases: For legal research and memo drafting, "a legal professional could task an agentic AI with researching a specific legal question," and the system would formulate a research plan, search relevant databases and journals, synthesize findings, and draft an initial memorandum with sources included. For contract analysis and due diligence, "an agentic AI can be assigned the goal of reviewing thousands of contracts from the target company" to identify key clauses, flag deviations, assess risks, and create summary reports.

The North Carolina Bar Association took a look at how law firms are already deploying agentic workflows in practice:

• Wilson Sonsini "has launched an agentic AI-powered commercial contracting tool" using Dioptra AI Contract Intelligence and the firm's custom playbook as part of their Neuron platform for emerging companies.
• Troutman Pepper "has built an agentic workflow" that automated approximately 80% of merger communications, with their tool called Athena now influencing client-facing work.
• LexisNexis "has launched Protégé AI Assistant" to autonomously complete tasks including drafting deposition questions, generating timelines, and analyzing transactional documents, while Thomson Reuters "is rolling out agentic AI across CoCounsel products" with workflows for drafting, employment policy generation, and compliance risk assessments.

Research on agentic AI from McKinsey emphasizes that "achieving business value with agentic AI requires changing workflows," noting that organizations focusing on "fundamentally reimagining entire workflows" rather than just the agent itself are more likely to deliver positive outcomes.

Navigating Substantial Risks

However, the legal profession faces unique challenges with agentic AI that demand careful consideration:

Accountability Questions: Since AI lacks legal personhood, it can't be directly sued, imprisoned, or held liable in the way humans or corporations can. This raises critical questions: If an agent is given autonomy on a law firm's website with no oversight to answer questions posed by potential clients, who is responsible for inadequate or incorrect information? Attorneys at Proskauer Rose investigate whether transactions initiated and executed by AI tools on behalf of users are enforceable, and whether current laws are enough to protect parties when disputes arise over decisions made by agentic AI tools.

Security and Privacy Concerns: For agentic AI to work, users would need to give it access to multiple tools that house private information and use credit cards on their behalf, requiring a lot of trust. Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having “profound security and privacy issues,” noting that the access these bots would need would break the barrier between the application layer and operating system layer, creating impossibilities in existing protections to keep information protected. Security experts are suggesting that people have a safe phrase shared with their family and company to confirm they are talking to them, and clients should be on that list too.

Quality Control: One common pitfall is deploying agentic systems that seem impressive in demonstrations but frustrate users responsible for the actual work, producing what users call "AI slop" or low-quality outputs. Companies should invest heavily in agent development, with experts staying involved to test performance over time and provide continuous feedback, as onboarding agents is more like hiring a new employee versus deploying software.

Oversight Requirements: A study by MIT Sloan shows that a majority of AI experts believe agentic AI requires new management approaches due to its higher autonomy and complexity, with traditional management systems designed for deterministic systems ill-equipped to handle autonomous, goal-oriented agents with memory and reasoning capabilities. These systems bring unprecedented levels of autonomy, complexity, and risk, requiring organizations to rethink traditional management strategies.

Moving Forward Responsibly

The path forward requires balance. Agents will not always be the best answer—low-variance, high-standardization workflows like regulatory disclosures may be better served by simpler automation approaches. People will remain essential to oversee model accuracy, ensure compliance, use judgment, and handle edge cases.

The key to successful use lies in human-AI collaboration, ensuring that the tool operates within defined guardrails to maintain compliance and accuracy. It works with you throughout your workflow to drive greater efficiency and more informed decision-making.

For legal professionals considering agentic AI, the evaluation process should consider security and privacy (what client data will the agent access and are transmissions encrypted), legal and ethical risk (can the tool's actions be audited and who is legally liable if the agent takes incorrect action), autonomy and oversight (how much autonomy does the agent have and can you insert a human in the loop for final review), functionality and fit (what specific tasks does the agent perform and is it trained for legal-specific use cases), and support and training (is vendor support available and can your team maintain and manage the agent effectively).

Given the accelerated pace at which agentic AI is transitioning into more readily available applications, professionals should now actively engage in continuous learning and exploration, seeking out demonstrations, industry-specific solutions, and educational resources on emerging agentic AI tools relevant to their practice areas.

The legal profession has always balanced innovation with ethical obligation. Agentic AI represents the latest test of that balance—offering unprecedented efficiency while demanding equally unprecedented vigilance. The firms that succeed will be those that embrace the technology's potential without losing sight of their fundamental duties to clients, the justice system, and society.

Start Your AI Journey with Rev

While agentic AI represents the cutting edge of what's possible, not every firm needs to start there. Building AI competency in your practice begins with understanding how AI can enhance your current workflows. Try Rev to experience practical AI applications for evidence management, document analysis, and more—helping you develop the foundation and confidence needed to be able to use emerging technologies like agentic AI when they're right for your practice.

Start where you are. Build expertise. Stay prepared for what's next.

‍