This morning, LexisNexis introduced the industrial preview of Protégé AI Workflows, the inevitable subsequent shoe to drop within the firm’s AI push. As each business searches for functions that may flip AI from a novelty into productiveness, momentum has swung towards automation and constructing “brokers” to sort out mundane (or not-so-mundane, because the case could also be) workflows. In that spirit, LexisNexis has a whole lot of pre-built authorized automation instruments paired with a customized workflow builder supposed to streamline all the pieces from drafting motions to redlining contracts towards agency playbooks.
If the 2025 legal tech word of the year was “agents,” it’s telling that this 2026 LexisNexis rollout tamps down a bit on that vitality. Whereas not eschewing the time period completely, the corporate places extra emphasis on extra acquainted — and extra trusted — phrases like “automated workflows.” At one level, even describing the duties that tech traders would name agentic as “a teammate,” a phrase I’ve championed for legal tech specifically. For a lawyer, company means hiring somebody to behave in your stead and take 10 % leaving you holding the legal responsibility bag. However a teammate higher conjures a picture of AI’s function — a fast-working, priceless junior that wants skilled supervision.
Anybody asking attorneys to make a big funding on this know-how — both financially or with adoption — wants to grasp they’re coaxing nervous squirrels by holding out a nut. Reduce something that’s going to scare them.
So, what does this teammate deliver to the desk?
▪ Litigation Workflows – Workflows designed to help disputes, motions apply, discovery, and case technique. Examples embody draft a movement to dismiss, draft full discovery and deposition paperwork, establish high instances by truth sample or authorized idea, extract details, and evaluate related arguments or legal guidelines throughout jurisdictions.
▪ Transactional Workflows – Workflows centered on contracts, deal execution, and threat evaluation. Examples embody draft a transactional doc or clause, generate first-pass agreements from time period sheets or templates, redline agreements towards inside requirements or playbooks, analyze key provisions and establish high-risk clauses, overview contracts for diligence dangers, and extract key obligations and liabilities.
▪ Broader Authorized AI Workflows – Designed for every day authorized duties in a non-public, safe workspace, powered by the most recent AI fashions from Anthropic and OpenAI and, within the U.S., built-in with LexisNexis main legislation and Shepard’s® Citations. Examples embody draft a shopper alert, extract a timeline of key occasions, summarize an interview, and transcribe audio to textual content.
That is the place suppliers with a deep understanding of the authorized sector turn out to be so necessary. Some research counsel that consumer-facing AI merchandise like ChatGPT outperform instruments constructed particularly for the authorized business. Whereas Grok appears to excel at stripping things down and leaving just briefs, it’s rather a lot much less reckless to place religion within the individuals who perceive the house and have mountains of particular knowledge to energy their choices. Even when a client software can produce viable work product with the advantage of publicly out there information proper now, with the leap towards increasingly automation, it’s going to turn out to be increasingly important that the architects behind these merchandise draw upon trusted expertise and never vibe lawyering built by an idiot.
As know-how begins making selections with out direct lawyer intervention, it speeds up the process in a manner that invites its own accidents. Stopping errors when companies go “GPTsus take the wheel,” as I’ve put it prior to now, will rely on good design, not a bot attempting to determine how you can carry out duties by scraping r/sovereigncitizen. How these workflows come collectively and keep away from slippage when promising “end-to-end” work would be the secret sauce.
And to the extent a agency needs to introduce their very own idiosyncrasies, LexisNexis can have a customized builder for purchasers to construct their very own programs leveraging their very own expertise.
This industrial preview seeks suggestions from key LexisNexis clients, however the firm expects to roll out Protégé workflows extra broadly 2026. The pre-built and configurable workflows, in addition to their Workflow Builder, will launch throughout the U.S., Canada, U.Ok., Europe, and Asia Pacific markets.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any ideas, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky in the event you’re excited by legislation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
