{"id":121447,"date":"2025-06-02T12:02:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/02\/agentic-ai-is-the-hot-buzzword-but-do-lawyers-actually-want-an-agent\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T12:02:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:02:49","slug":"agentic-ai-is-the-hot-buzzword-but-do-lawyers-actually-want-an-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/02\/agentic-ai-is-the-hot-buzzword-but-do-lawyers-actually-want-an-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Agentic\u2019 AI Is The Hot Buzzword\u2026 But Do Lawyers Actually Want An Agent?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomson Reuters just unveiled the next step in the evolution of CoCounsel, and the future is agentic! At least that\u2019s the pitch. Of course it sort of has<\/em> to be the pitch given the agent conversation dominates the industry zeitgeist and no one can risk being left behind. But while McConaughey cuts commercials about turning over dinner reservations to SkyNet, the question remains just how much do lawyers<\/em> need or even want an agent?<\/p>\n

Based on TR\u2019s announcement, it feels as though they know the answer is \u201cnot much,\u201d but can\u2019t duck the branding anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile today\u2019s most advanced AI assistants can generate results when prompted, agentic AI goes beyond simply responding under a pre-defined sequence of actions,\u201d declares this morning\u2019s press release. What does it mean to go beyond? \u201cIt plans, reasons, acts, and even reacts \u2014 operating inside real workflows to complete complex, multi-step assignments with the transparency, precision, and accountability professionals require.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an industry that routinely marks down work conducted by elite law school graduates, it\u2019s hard to imagine there\u2019s a real hankering for a bot that \u201cplans, reasons, acts, and even reacts.\u201d If we\u2019re not trusting a third-year from Harvard Law to make decisions on their own, it\u2019s not clear why we\u2019d want an algorithm.<\/p>\n

The good news is that the agents that Thomson Reuters showed off appeared a lot less autonomous than the sales copy might suggest. <\/p>\n

The product announcement for law dovetails with an announcement aimed at tax, audit, and accounting professionals. While admittedly not an expert in those worlds, the product looks useful for those folks \u2014 automating compliance reviews, memo drafting, and regulatory checks. It taps into Checkpoint, IRS code, and internal documents to deliver the right output based on the situation.<\/p>\n

The good news for lawyers, is that the legal product seemed less an autonomous tool deciding whether or not to open the pod bay doors<\/em> and more of an AI-enabled workflow. Which, I suppose, is some level of autonomy and has a definite use case, but there\u2019s a lot more human oversight. And that matters in legal because, not to spoil a 60-year-old movie but HAL 9000 didn\u2019t try to kill everyone because he broke with his programming \u2014 he tried to kill everybody because he was following his instructions with the power to \u201cplan, reason, act, and even react.\u201d Trying to do the job correctly was<\/em> the problem.<\/p>\n

\n

The rollout of agentic systems continues this year with expanded capabilities across legal, risk and trade, and compliance domains \u2014 including intelligent workflows for intelligent drafting, employment policy generation, deposition analysis, and compliance risk assessments. Many of these experiences already exist within CoCounsel, Westlaw, and Practical Law, but are now being upgraded with full agentic orchestration, where agents not only generate output but plan, execute, and adapt across tools in real time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That comports with what I saw. In a nutshell, the user can feed the product a file and it will start pursuing a vetted workflow. For example, it can scour the material and start brainstorming claims and pulling up relevant material from Practical Law and drafting a complaint. That\u2019s useful! Would I call it an agent? Maybe\u2026 but that\u2019s not exactly an Ari Gold level of agent.<\/p>\n

Nor do I think lawyers would want more. There\u2019s a reason why Thomson Reuters paid big money for CoCounsel and not AutomaticAttorney. A co-counsel is there to help, an agent is there to take care of the problem for you. They want tools that can fill in templates, check citations, pull filings, summarize discovery. To the extent lawyers have embraced AI at all, they\u2019re looking for an ally they can skeptically consult and not something trying to think on its own. <\/p>\n

The lawyers who\u2019ve tried the latter haven\u2019t fared well.<\/p>\n

Which is why it\u2019s such a conundrum to cover this announcement because what Thomson Reuters is calling an agent is not what most of the marketing hype would consider an agent\u2026 and that\u2019s GOOD! This is a next-level automated workflow constructed on the back of the incredibly deep Thomson Reuters knowledge base and crafted by subject matter experts. The offerings \u2014 which they could only say were coming at some point this year \u2014 are \u201cgoverned by human-in-the-loop oversight for safety, accuracy, and accountability.\u201d That\u2019s as it should be, but there\u2019s obvious tension between \u201cplans, reasons, acts, and even reacts\u201d and \u201cwe guarantee there\u2019s human judgment all over this!\u201d<\/p>\n

The latter sounds less cool to a tech conference, but a lot more heartwarming to a malpractice carrier. <\/p>\n

Thomson Reuters obviously has a deep customer base and gather a lot of feedback, but I\u2019m just not buying that lawyers are going to get hyped about \u201cagentic.\u201d Silicon Valley might be racing to build models that book flights, order lunch, and eventually plot the downfall of mankind, but what gets the legal industry in a buying mood is going to be something much more boring. The \u201chuman-in-the-loop\u201d part matters a lot more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018Agentic\u2019 AI Is The Hot Buzzword\u2026 But Do Lawyers Actually Want An Agent?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thomson Reuters just unveiled the next step in the evolution of CoCounsel, and the future is agentic! At least that\u2019s the pitch. Of course it sort of has<\/em> to be the pitch given the agent conversation dominates the industry zeitgeist and no one can risk being left behind. But while McConaughey cuts commercials about turning over dinner reservations to SkyNet, the question remains just how much do lawyers<\/em> need or even want an agent?<\/p>\n

Based on TR\u2019s announcement, it feels as though they know the answer is \u201cnot much,\u201d but can\u2019t duck the branding anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile today\u2019s most advanced AI assistants can generate results when prompted, agentic AI goes beyond simply responding under a pre-defined sequence of actions,\u201d declares this morning\u2019s press release. What does it mean to go beyond? \u201cIt plans, reasons, acts, and even reacts \u2014 operating inside real workflows to complete complex, multi-step assignments with the transparency, precision, and accountability professionals require.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an industry that routinely marks down work conducted by elite law school graduates, it\u2019s hard to imagine there\u2019s a real hankering for a bot that \u201cplans, reasons, acts, and even reacts.\u201d If we\u2019re not trusting a third-year from Harvard Law to make decisions on their own, it\u2019s not clear why we\u2019d want an algorithm.<\/p>\n

The good news is that the agents that Thomson Reuters showed off appeared a lot less autonomous than the sales copy might suggest. <\/p>\n

The product announcement for law dovetails with an announcement aimed at tax, audit, and accounting professionals. While admittedly not an expert in those worlds, the product looks useful for those folks \u2014 automating compliance reviews, memo drafting, and regulatory checks. It taps into Checkpoint, IRS code, and internal documents to deliver the right output based on the situation.<\/p>\n

The good news for lawyers, is that the legal product seemed less an autonomous tool deciding whether or not to open the pod bay doors<\/em> and more of an AI-enabled workflow. Which, I suppose, is some level of autonomy and has a definite use case, but there\u2019s a lot more human oversight. And that matters in legal because, not to spoil a 60-year-old movie but HAL 9000 didn\u2019t try to kill everyone because he broke with his programming \u2014 he tried to kill everybody because he was following his instructions with the power to \u201cplan, reason, act, and even react.\u201d Trying to do the job correctly was<\/em> the problem.<\/p>\n

\n

The rollout of agentic systems continues this year with expanded capabilities across legal, risk and trade, and compliance domains \u2014 including intelligent workflows for intelligent drafting, employment policy generation, deposition analysis, and compliance risk assessments. Many of these experiences already exist within CoCounsel, Westlaw, and Practical Law, but are now being upgraded with full agentic orchestration, where agents not only generate output but plan, execute, and adapt across tools in real time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That comports with what I saw. In a nutshell, the user can feed the product a file and it will start pursuing a vetted workflow. For example, it can scour the material and start brainstorming claims and pulling up relevant material from Practical Law and drafting a complaint. That\u2019s useful! Would I call it an agent? Maybe\u2026 but that\u2019s not exactly an Ari Gold level of agent.<\/p>\n

Nor do I think lawyers would want more. There\u2019s a reason why Thomson Reuters paid big money for CoCounsel and not AutomaticAttorney. A co-counsel is there to help, an agent is there to take care of the problem for you. They want tools that can fill in templates, check citations, pull filings, summarize discovery. To the extent lawyers have embraced AI at all, they\u2019re looking for an ally they can skeptically consult and not something trying to think on its own. <\/p>\n

The lawyers who\u2019ve tried the latter haven\u2019t fared well.<\/p>\n

Which is why it\u2019s such a conundrum to cover this announcement because what Thomson Reuters is calling an agent is not what most of the marketing hype would consider an agent\u2026 and that\u2019s GOOD! This is a next-level automated workflow constructed on the back of the incredibly deep Thomson Reuters knowledge base and crafted by subject matter experts. The offerings \u2014 which they could only say were coming at some point this year \u2014 are \u201cgoverned by human-in-the-loop oversight for safety, accuracy, and accountability.\u201d That\u2019s as it should be, but there\u2019s obvious tension between \u201cplans, reasons, acts, and even reacts\u201d and \u201cwe guarantee there\u2019s human judgment all over this!\u201d<\/p>\n

The latter sounds less cool to a tech conference, but a lot more heartwarming to a malpractice carrier. <\/p>\n

Thomson Reuters obviously has a deep customer base and gather a lot of feedback, but I\u2019m just not buying that lawyers are going to get hyped about \u201cagentic.\u201d Silicon Valley might be racing to build models that book flights, order lunch, and eventually plot the downfall of mankind, but what gets the legal industry in a buying mood is going to be something much more boring. The \u201chuman-in-the-loop\u201d part matters a lot more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018Agentic\u2019 AI Is The Hot Buzzword\u2026 But Do Lawyers Actually Want An Agent?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomson Reuters just unveiled the next step in the evolution of CoCounsel, and the future is agentic! At least that\u2019s the pitch. Of course it sort of has to be the pitch given the agent conversation dominates the industry zeitgeist and no one can risk being left behind. But while McConaughey cuts commercials about turning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Headshot-300x200-JDYkJj.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}