(Picture by ChatGPT)
Supposedly, the phrase of the 12 months in know-how is “agentic.” By the tip of the 12 months it’ll in all probability be “bubble,” however for now the world is supposed to tremble earlier than the superior promise of agentic. It takes AI to an entire new degree! It heralds the brand new human-free workforce! It retains Woody Harrelson out of the rain! Because the shiny object financial system grows complacent with magic interactive chatbots, the agentic AI period to rework these humdrum chatbots into one thing… else.
The hype machine gods should feed and are solely glad with the blood of freshly squeezed buzzwords. What does “agentic” even imply? “The time period ‘agent’ is likely one of the most egregious acts of fraud I’ve seen in my complete profession writing about this crap, and that features the metaverse,” writes tech journalist Ed Zitron and, in some way, he could be too forgiving. The agentic speak means every little thing and nothing . That’s the ability of an empty signifier! Heap no matter imprecise hopes and desires you may into this rhetorical nugget and let it carry you to a sale and one other spherical of funding.
In idea, agentic AI represents the leap from autocomplete-on-steroids to autonomous motion — taking an understanding of the consumer’s objectives and setting out by itself to get the job achieved. Think about a cybersecurity bot surveying the evolving menace panorama and inventing its personal countermeasures as new viruses emerge all whilst you’re nonetheless fumbling with two-factor authentication. Different tech firms promote brokers that monitor your calendar and autonomously resolve to e book your dinner, or purchase flowers, or plot the grisly demise of your enemies.
However since legal professionals entrusting this kind of autonomy to AI can be, to make use of the technical time period, “malpractice,” agentic AI doesn’t actually sing to this market. For those who suppose hallucinated case citations are unhealthy, wait till the agent takes it upon itself to settle your shopper’s divorce for pennies on the greenback based mostly on Kirshner. Even if you happen to’re not in Kentucky.
So why would anybody hoping to promote to legal professionals — which presumably describes the parents on the ILTACON exhibit flooring — indulge within the time period “agentic” in any respect?
For essentially the most half, it’s as a result of their agentic AI isn’t actually agentic AI. At the very least not the best way anybody making an attempt to gas a half trillion greenback valuation would use the time period.
We first encountered this a pair months in the past once we noticed Thomson Reuters preview its “agentic” choices. Regardless of adopting the word-of-the-moment, the Thomson Reuters product felt extra like a glorified automation product — which is nice! Feed it case recordsdata, it does some analysis, it brainstorms some claims or defenses, does somewhat extra analysis, and spits out a draft. That’s helpful and might jumpstart a lawyer’s work, but it surely’s not a lot an autonomous agent. If one had been so inclined, they might enter “based mostly on these case recordsdata, provide you with claims, carry out related authorized analysis, and current me with a primary draft movement” right into a bot and (supplied it had a way of accessing legitimate authorized analysis apart from its personal fever desires) get the identical end result proper now.
That’s not a lot agentic because it’s a batch file.
At ILTACON, Lexis confirmed off an identical function and added a bit extra to the agentic soup by explaining that they use totally different fashions for various duties, making the request extra difficult than merely asking ChatGPT a multipart immediate. Truthful, however that’s nonetheless not an “agent” as a lot as professionally designed prompting.
Once I raised my irritation with the entire agentic dialog with Tiana Van Dyk, Senior Director of Consumer Companies at Epiq, she characterised (a minimum of inside the authorized context) agentic as automation with prompts. “Is it that easy?” she mused. “There’s extra in there, as a result of you probably have all of the flawed fashions tied to all of the flawed steps, you’re gonna get a nasty final result.” From her perspective, the problem in authorized tech proper now could be demystifying these applied sciences for legal professionals. “What we’re lacking within the trade, is our potential to translate the academia and the advanced nature of a few of these programs into one thing that’s accessible.”
Although with brokers the battle isn’t with the lecturers as a lot because the promoting execs. They’re those pitching autonomous resolution makers to the world and the authorized tech distributors have to return again and inform the legal professionals, “ha ha, yeah, no, our product actually doesn’t do all that.”
It’s irritating, as a result of it feels like I’m downplaying the numerous expertise and experience that goes into making these processes work proper. Automation is difficult! Ensuring the method will get it appropriate each time takes a variety of strategic pondering and meticulous effort. However I preserve reminding myself that it’s not my fault that this sounds dismissive, it’s the wholly pointless resolution to set the bar at HAL 9000.
That’s to not say there aren’t niches inside the authorized workflow that would use real agentic AI. Cybersecurity continues to be a authorized trade concern. The billing course of could be ripe for one thing a minimum of nearer to agentic. Oddr doesn’t lean on the phrase agentic of their supplies — hurray! — however its end-to-end income platform that automates the agency by way of billing, collections, funds and forecasting is way nearer to the extent of streamlined automation by way of a number of totally different programs than what many firms would plaster the phrase agent throughout. Nonetheless, it’s not “evolving” its method to the billing course of until it independently figures out the best way to name Rocco and Vinnie to pay a go to to that one delinquent shopper.
Authorized tech distributors have a Scylla and Charybdis downside. On one aspect, they’re tech firms who really feel compelled to go together with the tech development circulate or seem like they’re not “leading edge” sufficient. On the opposite aspect, they cater to a authorized occupation that must be coaxed into tech adoption like frightened bunnies, soothed by reassurances that “this received’t actually change the way you’ve achieved this job for the final hundred years.”
The excellent news, is that legal professionals can chill out. Wholesome skepticism is at all times welcome, however don’t let the “agentic” branding — and all of the tech trade baggage that comes with it — scare you off of authorized tech merchandise. The suppliers who specialize on this house didn’t all of the sudden neglect who they’re coping with. They know that corporations aren’t out there for a product that’s going to start out making an attempt to “assist” by making authorized selections by itself. Like Outdated Man Jenkins, the carnival caretaker who would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you pesky youngsters, if you happen to look beneath the hood of that “agentic” providing and also you’ll discover acquainted prompts driving a well-known, vetted automation.
Helpful, possibly even transformative on the margins, however not one thing making selections.
The true hazard is that buzzwords like “agentic” — and the delirious bucket of magic beans guarantees that comes with it — will scare legal professionals into lacking out on helpful instruments. Nevertheless it’s the character of this trade that we have now to consistently push again towards guarantees that thrill enterprise capital whereas terrifying legal professionals. By subsequent 12 months there will likely be some new empty signifier. Symphonic AI… turning a number of brokers into ebbing and flowing actors inside a unified, goal-oriented symphony of voices. Or some equally bullshit phrase.
That’s, until “bubble” actually does take over first.
Earlier: Dispatches From The AI Bubble: ILTACON 2025‘Agentic’ AI Is The Sizzling Buzzword… However Do Attorneys Really Need An Agent?
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Pondering Like A Lawyer. Be happy to e-mail any ideas, questions, or feedback. Observe him on Twitter or Bluesky if you happen to’re concerned about regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Government Search.
