AI for Legal Teams: 3 Steps to Build an AI-Ready Team

AI for legal teams is no longer coming—it’s here, and it’s changing the way legal teams work.

Among many other capabilities being developed, it can automatically route legal requests based on team capacity and generate up-to-date reports in seconds, helping lawyers save time and focus on bigger priorities.

But using a general AI assistant like ChatGPT or Perplexity won’t be enough. To get real value (and to get ahead of competitors who are discovering the benefits of legal AI), legal teams need to leverage AI-powered tools that are specifically built for legal work.

So, where should you start and what should you prioritize? In this guide, we’ll walk through the key steps to preparing your legal team for AI adoption and maximizing the value of AI for legal teams, from laying the right foundation to selecting the best tools and driving smooth adoption across your team.  

Step 1: How Do You Know If Your Legal Team Is Ready for AI?”

Before deciding whether to implement an AI-powered legal software or not, legal teams need to take a step back and assess where they stand today. AI can enhance efficiency, automate tasks, and improve decision-making—but only if the right foundation is in place.

Identify Your Pain Points and Goals

AI should solve real problems, not just add another tool to manage. Start by asking:

• Where is your team spending too much time on manual, repetitive work?

• What bottlenecks slow down legal request handling?

• Where does your team struggle with visibility or reporting?

By identifying these challenges, you can ensure legal AI is implemented with a clear purpose—whether it’s streamlining legal intake, automating contract review, or improving data insights.

Evaluate Your Current Systems and Data

AI works best when it has access to structured data. Take inventory of your current legal processes and tools:

• How do legal requests come in? (Emails, Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc.)

• Where is legal work tracked? (Spreadsheets, ticketing systems, etc.)

• How easy is it to retrieve data for reporting and decision-making?

If your team struggles with scattered or inconsistent data, consider how an AI-powered legal solution—like Checkbox—can streamline legal intake and triage through integrations and AI assistants.

Step 2: How Can Legal Leaders Drive AI Adoption?

Without the right buy-in from key stakeholders, even the best AI solutions can face resistance. To ensure a smooth transition, legal teams need to align leadership, legal ops, General Counsels (GCs) and end users on why AI matters and how it will improve their work.

Align with Leadership on the Business Case

Legal leaders and executives want to see realistic value and be convinced of high ROI before allocating budget and investing in legal AI technology. To gain their support, focus on communicating measurable benefits:

• Increased efficiency – AI reduces manual, repetitive tasks like legal intake, document management, and contract reviews.

• Faster response times – AI-powered tools help route requests, eliminate the need for manual data entry, summarize legal matter information, and surface insights in real time.

• Stronger legal-business alignment – AI-driven reporting makes it easier to communicate clear results and demonstrate legal’s impact to leadership.

• More time for strategic initiatives – AI assistants handle routine inquiries that don’t require legal’s expertise, giving legal professionals more bandwidth for high-impact work that contributes to company growth.

The key is to position AI as a strategic advantage.

Set Expectations for Your Team

Change can create uncertainty, especially when AI is involved. Some team members may even worry that AI will replace their jobs. So, it’s crucial to reinforce that AI is not here to replace lawyers, but to enhance their capabilities by:

• Automating low-value, repetitive work so legal professionals can focus on more strategic initiatives such as building resilience strategies or supporting revenue generation.

• Acting as an assistant, not a decision-maker, ensuring lawyers always remain in control.

• Providing data-driven insights to support better decision-making.

For AI for legal teams to succeed, it’s essential to create a culture where AI is seen as an enabler, not a threat.

Step 3: What Should You Look for in Legal AI Tools?

Once you have stakeholder buy-in, the next step is choosing the right AI for your legal team—a solution that aligns with your team’s unique needs. Not all AI tools are built for legal use, and choosing the wrong one can lead to inefficiencies, security concerns, or poor adoption.  

Legal teams should look for an AI software solution that specifically targets their day-to-day practices such as intake and triage, matter management, legal workflows, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Identify the Right Use Case for AI

Rather than trying to implement AI across every aspect of legal work all at once, you may consider starting with a high-impact, low-risk area. The best place to begin is legal intake, because it is the first point of entry for legal requests—setting the stage for everything that follows. If intake is disorganized, AI won’t be able to add meaningful efficiencies later in the process.

• AI-powered legal intake and triage – Automate how legal requests are received, categorized, and assigned, ensuring a structured, efficient process from the start.

• Workflow automation – Reduce manual data entry and back-and-forth communication for common tasks like NDAs and approvals.

• Data insights and reporting – Use AI to track legal team workload directly from your matter management platform and demonstrate impact with ease.

By focusing on a clear, foundational use case like legal intake, you can quickly prove AI’s value and build momentum for broader adoption.

Ensure Security and Compliance Standards Are Met

Since legal teams handle highly sensitive information, not all AI solutions will meet security and compliance requirements. Before selecting a tool, do some research and ask:

• Where is data stored, and how is it protected?

• Does the AI platform comply with industry regulations?

• How does it ensure confidentiality and prevent unauthorized access?

Legal ops should vet legal tech vendors thoroughly and ensure their chosen solution meets enterprise-grade security standards to mitigate risk early and avoid complications in the future.

Look for Integrations with Existing Tools

The best AI solutions fit seamlessly with existing legal workflows rather than forcing teams to change how they work. When evaluating AI-powered in-house legal technology, consider:

• Does it integrate with the platforms your team already uses? (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Slack, contract management systems)

• Can it pull in data from emails, forms, and chat tools to streamline intake and triage?

• Will it reduce friction for the legal team and business users?

An AI-powered platform like Checkbox, for example, connects with existing systems to centralize legal work without requiring a complete process overhaul.

Request a Demo Before Making a Final Decision

Before committing to an AI solution, request a demo to see the tool in action and ensure it meets your team’s needs. During the demo, focus on:

• Ease of use – Does the platform require extensive training, or is it intuitive?

• Customization – Can workflows be tailored to your team’s specific needs?

• Real-world impact – Does the AI actually automate and simplify tasks, or does it add complexity?

Seeing an AI-powered legal platform like Checkbox in action is the best way to understand how it can streamline intake, automate workflows, and provide real-time insights—all while integrating with your existing tools.  

Ready to bring AI to your legal team? Book a demo and see how Checkbox helps in-house teams move faster, stay in control, and prove their impact.