How in-house legal teams are deploying AI tools in 2025

Where legal AI is delivering operational impact — backed by proof, not promises

In 2025, legal teams are no longer debating the role of artificial intelligence (AI). They’re deploying AI legal tools across their functions to streamline workflows, reduce risk, and shift time back to high-value strategic work.

This isn’t about replacing lawyers. It’s about removing the friction and inefficiencies that slow them down — through targeted, practical applications of legal AI software.

Below are ten areas where AI is already reshaping in-house legal operations, along with real-world results and the tools delivering them.

1. AI contract tools: Reducing review time and improving consistency

Contract work is time-intensive, high-volume, and critical to business velocity. AI tools now help legal teams speed up drafting, identify risk, and improve compliance across every stage of the contract lifecycle.

Where AI fits:

• Drafting automation and clause suggestion
• Clause comparison and deviation detection
• Contract summarisation for internal use
• Obligation tracking post-signature

Real-world impact:
Noumi reduced average execution time to four hours and completed NDAs in just 1.5 hours using Plexus, freeing legal to focus on strategic matters.

“We’ve automated the contract admin we used to drown in — now our legal team is focused where it matters.”
— General Counsel, Noumi

Tools to consider:

• Plexus – End-to-end contract automation, ideal for lean in-house legal functions
• Luminance – Best for clause anomaly detection and bulk analysis across document portfolios

2. Legal research AI: Delivering faster insights and better decisions

Legal research is essential — but often a drain on time. With AI-powered legal research tools, teams now get to the point faster, with more confidence in their findings.

Where AI fits:

• Natural language search
• Summarisation of long-form legal documents
• Highlighting actionable insights for different audiences

Real-world impact:
Legal professionals report completing research tasks up to 40% faster, freeing up time to focus on interpretation and risk assessment — not document scanning.

While not every legal team needs deep research automation, AI summaries alone can dramatically improve turnaround and clarity for internal clients.

3. AI compliance tools: Staying ahead of regulation and risk

With regulations changing constantly, AI compliance tools allow legal teams to track obligations, spot risk, and stay audit-ready — without falling behind.

Where AI fits:

• Monitoring jurisdictional legal changes
• Extracting compliance terms from contracts
• Flagging risk based on language patterns

Tools to consider:

• Plexus – Offers clause-level compliance tagging, renewal reminders, and built-in audit trails
• Neota Logic – Well-suited to complex rule-based compliance environments (e.g., finance, health, utilities)

4. Legal operations AI: Streamlining intake and workflows

Matter management remains a challenge for many in-house teams. AI legal operations platforms help legal teams take control of incoming requests, route work efficiently, and reduce manual overhead.

Where AI fits:

• Smart intake forms
• AI-generated clarification questions
• Automated task assignment and routing

Real-world impact:
Powerco, New Zealand’s second-largest utility provider, used Plexus to overhaul its legal operations. Admin time dropped dramatically — what once took hours now takes just 30 minutes a week.

That kind of operational leverage is exactly what overworked legal teams need in today’s high-growth, high-compliance environments.

5. Legal chatbots and self-service: Scaling legal access without the overload

Routine questions take up legal’s time — and slow down the business. AI-powered chatbots and self-service platforms let teams answer common questions quickly, while keeping legal in control.

Where AI fits:

• Legal FAQs and chatbot responses
• Searchable legal policy or template libraries
• AI review of marketing content for compliance

Real-world impact:
L’Oréal ANZ cut marketing legal review time by 80% using Plexus Marketing Suite, responding in hours instead of days.

“We’ve cut review time by 80% and still maintained full legal oversight. It’s a win-win.”
— Legal Counsel, L’Oréal ANZ

Tools to consider:

• Plexus Marketing Wizard – Built specifically for marketing compliance and promotional review
• Josef – A versatile no-code platform to create legal bots for intake, triage, or guidance

6. Legal document automation: Creating compliant documents faster

Generating legal documents doesn’t need to be time-consuming or fully owned by legal teams. With AI-powered document automation tools, legal can delegate safely — enabling business users to create standardised, policy-aligned contracts with confidence.

Where AI fits best:

• Self-service generation of NDAs, MSAs, SoWs, and other templates
• Clause selection based on risk profile or contract type
• Built-in logic for approvals and escalations when terms deviate from standard

Real-world impact:

Legal teams using document automation tools see reduced intake volume and faster turnaround — often 50 – 70% less legal time spent on routine documents.

Noumi, for example, leverages Plexus to allow business users to self-serve NDAs and short-form contracts — cutting delays and keeping Legal focused on higher-risk work.

Legal AI tools to consider:

• Plexus – Document automation tailored to legal’s rules and workflows
• DocuSign CLM – Focused on contract template automation with approvals
• Contractbook – Template-driven document generation with business-friendly UI

7. AI legal assistants: Extending your legal team’s capabilities

AI legal assistants are becoming a critical part of the modern legal tech stack. Whether drafting emails, summarising documents, or flagging risks in contracts, these assistants augment lawyer productivity with fast, contextual support.

Where AI fits best:

• Drafting internal memos, advice, or responses to business stakeholders
• Suggesting clause-level changes based on historical preferences
• Reviewing and redlining contracts using trained legal models

Tools to consider:

• Harvey – AI assistant for legal research, drafting, and contract analysis
• CoCounsel (Casetext) – AI-trained on legal use cases including redlining
• Plexus, Josef – Offer embedded assistants to accelerate internal legal service delivery

8. Data security and compliance in legal AI platforms

As legal data is highly sensitive, data security is a top priority when adopting AI legal tools. The best platforms combine intelligent automation with rigorous security and compliance controls.

Where AI matters:

• AI models that are secure, explainable, and non-retentive
• Role-based permissions that protect access to sensitive contracts
• Localised data storage and strong encryption standards
• Audit logs for all user and system activity

Real-world impact:

Legal teams evaluating AI tools increasingly demand ISO 27001 certification, Australian data hosting, and zero data reuse by LLM providers.

Plexus, for example, hosts client data in Australia, applies enterprise-grade encryption, and provides detailed audit trails for all activity — keeping legal and IT stakeholders aligned.

Legal AI platforms with strong security:

• Plexus – ISO 27001 certified with Australian-based data centres
• Ironclad – Offers SOC 2 compliance and custom role controls
• Josef – Flexible platform with granular user access and private deployment options

9. Measuring ROI from legal AI adoption

The strongest legal AI platforms don’t just automate — they deliver measurable business value. Teams that succeed with AI are the ones that track impact from day one.

Where to measure ROI:

• Reduction in contract turnaround time
• Decrease in legal request backlogs or volume per FTE
• Time saved on research, intake, or compliance tasks
• Stakeholder satisfaction and response time SLAs

10. The future of legal AI: What’s next?

Looking ahead, we’ll see continued expansion in:

• Industry-specific legal AI tools (e.g., for healthcare, financial services)
• Predictive legal analytics to flag litigation or regulatory risk early
• Integrated AI ecosystems where matter intake, contract management, and compliance monitoring all talk to each other

Final thought: Legal AI isn’t an experiment — it’s infrastructure

In 2025, top-performing legal departments aren’t dabbling in AI — they’re deploying legal AI software with measurable business impact. Whether it’s automating contracts, managing compliance risk, or scaling service delivery with legal chatbots, the right tools are proving their value every day.

If you’re stuck in contracting backlog, buried in compliance admin, or struggling to triage growing volumes of legal work, now’s the time to rethink your legal tech stack.

And in areas like AI contract management, legal matter automation, marketing compliance tools, and legal self-service, Plexus is leading the way.