The legal industry has already experienced one seismic shift with the rise of generative AI. Tools that draft contracts, summarize cases, and analyze risk have moved from experimental to essential in only a few years. But the next leap is already underway: agentic AI.
Agentic AI is more than a chatbot or drafting assistant. It is AI that doesn’t just generate text but can autonomously act across systems, execute workflows, and coordinate tasks. For law firms and in-house counsel, this promises to cut hours of administrative overhead and transform how legal work gets done.
At goHeather, we see agentic AI as the natural next step in AI for lawyers—and we’re building toward it.
Generative AI (like ChatGPT and other large language models) revolutionized productivity by creating content on demand. But its scope has been limited: a lawyer asks a question, the model answers in a text window. The lawyer then has to copy, paste, edit, and manually apply the output.
Agentic AI changes this.
Think of agentic AI as the difference between a research assistant and a project manager who executes tasks for you.
Lawyers, especially at small law firms, spend 30–40% of their time on administrative tasks: version management, billing, copying notes across systems, scheduling updates, and emailing drafts. None of this work directly delivers client value.
Agentic AI directly targets that inefficiency by:
The American Bar Association has already recognized the potential of AI-driven workflow automation in law, noting that “automation will reshape client service models.”
Of course, deploying agentic AI in law raises important challenges:
The Harvard Journal of Law & Technology notes that legal AI must “balance innovation with accountability.” Agentic AI is no exception.
At goHeather, we’ve already built the lawyer-trained AI—a platform that analyzes contracts in real time, flags risks, applies customizable playbooks and creates redlines, and finally generates exportable reports to send to the other side.
The next natural step is making those insights actionable:
That’s the promise of agentic AI for law—and it’s the direction we’re moving at goHeather.
Jeff is a lawyer in Toronto and he is a co-founder of goHeather. Jeff is a frequent lecturer on commercial and employment law and AI for law firms, and is the author of a commercial law textbook and various trade journal articles. Jeff is interested in business, technology and law.
Get the latest contract tips, updates, and exclusive content straight to your inbox. Subscribe now and never miss out on what's new in contract law or at goHeather!
Our AI sifts through each clause, identifying potential risks. This enables us to provide quick yet comprehensive contract reviews, equipping you with the legal information you need to make informed decisions.
goHeather enables you to quickly create local employment contracts using lawyer-made templates. Our contracts include a free e-signature feature and provide access to a dashboard for managing all your employee contracts and key details.