In the legal world, where precision and time are of the essence, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proving to be a formidable ally. It's the ultimate multitasker—eliminating the drudgery of repetitive tasks and allowing lawyers to focus on what truly matters: delivering strategic, high-level counsel to their clients. From trimming hours of summarizing and formatting to mere minutes, to organizing data with impeccable accuracy, AI is reshaping how law firms operate.
AI Tools in Law Firms – International Perspective
AI tools for legal work have become increasingly integral to organisations globally.
CruxIQ, used by several Fortune 500 companies, is a legal AI platform that automates contract management. It extracts key legal terms, generates customised summaries, and conducts variation analysis by comparing contracts to standard templates. This helps lawyers detect deviations, ensure compliance, and streamline contract reviews, similar to other leading legal AI tools.
For instance, Kira Systems leverages machine learning to identify key provisions, categorise clauses, and flag potential risks within contracts. LawGeex® automates contract reviews to ensure compliance with internal policies and legal standards. Complementing these, AWS Textract® streamlines document digitization by extracting structured data from scanned agreements and regulatory forms.
E-discovery and document management have also evolved with AI advancements. Relativity® offers powerful solutions for managing vast volumes of case-related data, incorporating advanced analytics and multilingual document translation. Luminance" excels in detecting patterns and anomalies within datasets, proving invaluable in arbitration, due diligence, and regulatory compliance. Luminance provides AI-driven solutions enabling automated contract review, mark up, and drafting within MS Word, along with an AI chatbot for Q&A and re-drafting.
Casetext® delivers context-specific results, enhancing both the speed and depth of research. It uses AI to analyse legal documents and recommend relevant case law, statutes, and secondary sources. Lawyers can upload briefs, complaints, or memos, and CARA will instantly identify key legal issues, find precedent, and uncover overlooked cases. Its features like context-aware searching, automatic citation retrieval, and customised legal research suggestions help attorneys streamline case preparation, strengthen arguments, and save time.
In litigation strategy, predictive analytics tools such as Lex Machina® and Judicata® are reshaping traditional approaches. Lex Machina offers data-driven insights into judicial tendencies and case outcomes, while Judicata enhances the accuracy of legal briefs by identifying inconsistencies and potential errors. For instance, Lex Machina® allows users to refine case data by type, date range, court, judge, and findings. The resulting analysis provides key insights for make informed decisions in litigation.
For client and case management, platforms like Litify® and Gemini® streamline operations—Litify integrates case management with customer relation management for seamless client communication, while Gemini provides real-time access to legal and regulatory updates.
More ubiquitous AI tools, including ChatGPT®, Claude® AI, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, are also making their mark in legal workflows. ChatGPT aids in drafting legal correspondence and content, Claude AI specializes in summarizing complex data, and Microsoft 365 Copilot automates routine tasks across MS Office applications, enhancing productivity.
Emerging solutions like Clio Duo" offer case management, client intake and relation management, document automation, legal accounting, calendaring, contact management, task management, billing, trust account management, financial reporting, e-signatures, court e-filing, legal workflow automation, and 250+ app integrations. It also includes client communications, appointment booking, a legal client portal, and advanced document automation.
The aforesaid illustrative examples of AI tools signify more than a technological shift—they outline a strategic imperative. By minimising manual errors, optimising resource allocation, and delivering actionable insights, AI empowers legal professionals to focus on providing niche client service.
Use of AI in Indian Law Firms
Indian law firms are increasingly incorporating AI tools into their operations as well. Recently, a leading corporate law firm based in Delhi announced the adoption of AI technologies, including Harvey® for legal services—a cutting-edge AI platform built on OpenAI's GPT models and developed specifically for legal professionals. Harvey assists lawyers with tasks such as drafting, research, and contract analysis, enabling faster and more accurate legal work. As per a Reuters article from last year, more than 15,000 law firms were on a waiting list to start using Harvey.1 In addition to Harvey, law firms use Lucio to support lawyers, and Copilot and ChatGPT® Plus for business operations.
Interestingly, there is a clear trend amongst Indian law firms towards embracing tailored AI solutions. Several firms including IP outfits are developing custom-built AI systems to cater to their specific needs. When customising AI models, firms must typically obtain licenses from the original developers to ensure compliance with usage terms. Negotiating licensing agreements then becomes a key consideration as such agreements helps define the scope of use, rights to customisation, applicable fees, support services as well as ensuring that legal frameworks are in place to protect intellectual property.
Harnessing of AI by Indian Law Firms, Judiciary and Government
AI tools are increasingly becoming a part of the legal ecosystem in India. While AI will not replace legal jobs, those who learn to harness AI tools will have a significant advantage. The future belongs to legal professionals who evolve alongside these technological advancements, using them to improve efficiency and deliver more value to clients.
However, before adopting AI, it is essential to assess whether a specific tool fits needs and complies with an organisation's standards. For instance, it is critical to train AI systems in an unbiased environment and ensure they comply with confidentiality standards. Embracing AI in law is not just about adopting another tool for improving efficiency, but about mastering its complexities and ensuring responsible use.
On the judicial side, the Supreme Court of India will soon implement AI Saransh, an AI tool developed by the National Informatics Centre to generate summaries of legal pleadings. The tool, which offers both extractive and abstractive summarisation, aims to enhance efficiency by quickly highlighting key points in lengthy documents, reducing the need for time-consuming manual work.
Notably, the Indian government is also taking significant strides in AI development, both in terms of education and technological innovation. Recently, the State of Maharashtra announced plans to establish India's first AI university, which will be a game-changer in fostering specialized AI education and research in the country.2
Further, the Indian Government is working on developing its own AI models, similar to global giants like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, with plans to launch these models within the next few months.3 These actions form a part of the IndiaAI Mission, which is a key initiative with a total budget of approx. 1.2 billion USD, with focus on fostering innovation, developing homegrown AI models, and establishing a sustainable AI ecosystem.
With the rapid rise and widespread use of AI, institutions across the world are actively drafting comprehensive policies to govern AI. For instance, the Illinois Supreme Court has introduced a new AI Policy, effective January 1, 2025, regarding the use of AI within the judicial system. The policy encourages use of AI by attorneys, judges, clerks, researchers, and other court staff, provided it complies with legal and ethical standards, and privacy laws. Importantly, the policy specifies that there is no requirement to disclose the use of AI in pleadings or court proceedings.4
Challenges in Integrating AI into Legal Practices
While AI holds significant potential to reshape the legal sector, its integration is not without complexities. AI systems like ChatGPT generate responses based on patterns rather than genuine comprehension. It can recite case law flawlessly but could struggle with applying it in nuanced contexts.
Data security and client confidentiality present another critical concern. Law firms cannot afford to treat sensitive information casually, and therefore, rigorous due diligence of AI vendors for compliance with strict data protection standards is not a recommendation—it is a professional obligation.
No doubt AI excels in rule-based, repetitive tasks such as compliance reviews, billing audits, and document drafting. However, its capabilities falter when confronted with the subtleties of legal strategy, ethical dilemmas, or the nuanced judgment that comes with years of professional practice. The core of legal counsel—empathy, discretion, and ethical reasoning—remains a distinctly human domain.
Moreover, AI tools are prone to occasional "hallucinations," confidently generating inaccurate or misleading information. In a profession where precision is paramount, this makes human oversight indispensable. AI can enhance efficiency, but it cannot—and should not—replace the critical thinking and judgement that define effective legal advocacy.
Lawsuits Against AI Companies
As AI integrates with legal workflows, it has also found itself at the centre of several lawsuits worldwide, particularly concerning issues of copyright infringement and data usage.
In recent months, a wave of lawsuits has emerged against AI companies across the U.S. (OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Midjourney, Stability AI, and DeviantArt, alongside tech giants like Nvidia and Intel.), Europe, and beyond, with plaintiffs ranging from authors and artists to major media organizations. The core allegation is consistent: AI systems have unlawfully utilized copyrighted material for training datasets, at times even generating inferior derivatives of the original works. A notable example is an open letter from the Authors Guild—endorsed by over 8,500 writers, including Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, and Jodi Picoult—demanding that companies behind generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard cease unauthorised use of their works and provide fair compensation for the data that fuels AI development.5
Also noteworthy is Thomson Reuters recent victory in a U.S. copyright case against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup. Filed in 2020, it is one of the first cases to deal with the legality of AI tools and how they are trained, often using copyrighted data scraped without license or permission. The court ruled that Ross's use of Westlaw's copyrighted headnotes to train its AI legal research tool did not qualify as fair use. However, as the judge noted, this case involved 'non-generative' AI, not a GenAI tool such as OpenAI etc.
India too has entered the legal arena with its first significant AI-related lawsuit. Asian News International (ANI), a leading news agency, has sued OpenAI in the Delhi High Court, claiming unauthorised use of its copyrighted content to train language models like ChatGPT. ANI seeks ₹20 million ($240,000 USD) in damages, while OpenAI contests the court's jurisdiction, citing its servers and training operations are based outside India, as well as denying the inclusion of ANI's content in its datasets. Consequently, the court appointed two amici curiae (neutral legal experts) confirmed that jurisdiction is determined by the Plaintiff's place of business, which in this case is New Delhi, but disagreed on whether OpenAI's use of ANI's data constituted copyright infringement or qualified as 'fair use'.6 The case is presently pending before the Delhi High Court.
This case marks Asia's first legal challenge against OpenAI—or any AI company—regarding Large Language Model (LLM) training. Its outcome could set a precedent not just in India but also in other common law jurisdictions grappling with similar issues.
Conclusion
AI tools are streamlining everything from legal research to document drafting, enabling lawyers to ditch the mundane and embrace the meaningful. Of course, AI isn't infallible—case references still need careful vetting, and outputs require review to match a firm's gold standard. But the payoff is undeniable: efficiency, cost savings, and happier clients.
As India and other jurisdictions begin to establish frameworks for the ethical and legal use of AI in law, it is clear that the future of legal practice will not be shaped solely by AI, but by the professionals who master it to enhance their expertise and service to clients. AI would not replace anyone, however, AI trained workforce will certainly replace those who fail to adapt to it. AI is not merely a technological tool—it represents a transformative force reshaping the legal landscape.
Footnotes
1. https://www.reuters.com/legal/legal-ai-race-draws-more-investors-law-firms-line-up-2023-04-26/
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