Extract from Ella Sherman’s article “Microsoft’s Legal Agent Could Shake Up Legal Tech—If It Delivers”
This story has been updated with information on Microsoft’s former legal tech hires.
Microsoft unveiled its Legal Agent on Thursday, but the jury is out as to whether the tool will truly impact the legal tech industry due to its current limited availability.
Experts say that if the Legal Agent, which runs in Word, ends up performing well for users, it could threaten legal tech companies with similar capabilities like contract redlining, risk detection and document review—but if it doesn’t, Microsoft will be just fine.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
Right now, the Legal Agent is only available through Microsoft’s early-access Frontier program and has not yet been released more broadly. However, Oliver Roberts, co-director of WashU AI Collaborative at Washington University School of Law and CEO and co-founder of Wickard AI, said the tool stands to gain serious traction once it becomes more widely available. With so many legal teams already using Microsoft products, the company will be meeting lawyers where they’re at by locating the Legal Agent within users’ existing systems.
