InTouch’s practical, low-risk approach to AI
This blog series by Peter Impey, Consultant General Counsel at InTouch, looks at what AI is, how it’s evolving, and what it means for legal services. It outlines key developments and use cases, touches on risks, regulation and the SRA’s position, and explains InTouch’s practical, low-risk approach to bringing AI into everyday work in a law firm. You can find the full series and related articles on the InTouch blog.
This final blog in my AI series brings the InTouch use cases sharply into focus. In Artificial Intelligence: How did we get here? I looked at the long arc of computing and AI. In What even is AI? I unpacked the main types of AI. In Legal’s AI Paradigm Shift – So What? I asked what all this means for legal services. In Driverless cars to lawyerless law firms? I explored how AI is changing expectations and why hybrid firms will win. And in AI Risks and Rewards in Legal: From Horror Stories to New Sensibilities, I looked at early mistakes and how a more mature approach is emerging.
This article turns to practice. InTouch is bringing practical, low-risk AI into everyday work at law firms. Below, I explain the main use cases and share evidence from real client deployments. My hope is that this gives a grounded view of AI in day-to-day legal work, which is often missing from wider discussions about how AI can assist lawyers. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Technology and innovation in legal services
In the 2021 Technology and Innovation in Legal Services final report to the SRA, the findings showed that the three top motivations for technology adoption are to “improve service quality” (71.5%), “improve efficiency of workflows” (70.9%), and “allow staff to work more flexibly” (43.9%).
For firms not yet using these tools but planning to, the same three reasons came top. In other words, current and future users of legal technology are broadly aligned in why they want it.
Firms are steadily adopting digital solutions to deliver better services and reduce costs. AI is simply a newer way of pursuing the same goals. Changes to products and delivery methods are now a normal part of how legal services are built and improved.
AI can help work move faster and make it easier to offer pricing that reflects the actual effort involved. The main barriers to adoption remain the same: lack of capital and lack of in-house expertise. By choosing a case management platform with AI built in, firms can tackle several of these problems at once, rather than trying to design and run their own AI projects.
Many firms are now adopting InTouch with this in mind, using it to meet the same core aims highlighted in the SRA’s report: better service, better workflows and more flexible ways of working.
Skills are changing and AI is becoming “indistinguishable from magic”
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law, from his 1973 revision of Profiles of the Future. With the pace of change accelerating and AI systems steadily improving, there are now countless examples of AI in both professional and personal life.
The skills needed to run your life effectively are changing. Why learn to read a map in detail when your car has satnav built in? As discussed in an earlier blog, your car may soon drive itself to your destination.
For law firms, adoption is the real goal. Mindset and technology both matter. The question is: what does it actually mean to have AI available in your day-to-day tools? What difference does it make to adopt it inside real casework, rather than treating it as an experiment on the side?
On the InTouch platform, we see three main categories of use case emerging: clients and cases, knowledge and drafting, and operations and management. Explaining these should help reduce concerns about not using AI and challenge the idea that technology investments do not lead to real business benefits.
Firstly a reminder of how AI works on InTouch.
Matter AI Assist: AI inside the matter
Matter AI Assist gives you large language model capability directly inside each matter in InTouch. Prompts, drafts and answers stay in the case workspace, under your existing permissions. Data is processed within your firm’s InTouch account rather than in public tools, and every outcome is recorded in the matter, so there is a clear audit trail.
Full human-in-the-loop control is built in. Matter AI Assist can suggest drafts or answers and highlight information, but the person handling the matter decides what to send, what to change and what to ignore. Accountability remains with the user. Support is on hand, and the team maintains a close relationship with firms using the tools.
Technical documentation and supporting materials are written in plain English for non-technical users. InTouch can support firms with policy documentation and training, so teams use Matter AI Assist in line with firm standards.
To understand how Matter AI Assist is used in practice, I looked at an anonymised, de-duplicated and grouped list of examples from live matters. Even without seeing which emails or documents were in context at the time, the analysis still showed three clear use cases emerging.
Explaining these three areas should help make the benefits of Matter AI Assist easier to see, and why having this capability inside your case management system is becoming a strategic priority.
Clients & cases
Matter AI Assist directly supports client-facing work and day-to-day case management. It helps users see where a matter has got to and turn that into clear, accurate communication without retyping everything.
Typical uses include:
Explaining documents or steps to clients in plain English
Giving short case or matter updates for emails, letters or SMS
Drafting first versions of emails or letters based on what is already in the file
In practice, this looks like asking, “What is still outstanding on this matter?”, “Summarise the current status so I can update the client”, or “Draft a short update email using the latest notes”. The facts come from the case; the lawyer keeps control of tone, judgment and what is actually sent.
Knowledge & drafting
Matter AI Assist also helps with the “heavy reading” and writing that sits behind most matters. It makes it quicker to understand documents and produce working drafts, without replacing legal judgment.
Common examples are:
Answering legal explanation requests (“Explain this clause to the client”)
Giving guidance on standard documents or processes
Summarising or explaining long documents so key points, risks and dates are clear
In short, it cuts down the time spent getting to grips with documents and gives lawyers a better starting point for their own analysis and advice. The lawyer remains in control of the output and can edit before sharing.
Operations & management
Finally, Matter AI Assist supports the business and operational side of legal work that often gets squeezed between deadlines. It helps keep data consistent, communication clear and simple checks under control.
Here it is used to:
Tidy and adjust communication style, for example making a message clearer or less formal
Help with basic administrative and reporting tasks inside the matter
Support internal workflow, simple project queries, and basic billing or accounting checks (“Does this invoice and statement add up?”)
These uses span the whole lifecycle of a matter, from first contact to final bill. The pattern is the same: the system does the searching, drafting and checking inside the file; the person reviews and decides while remaining in control.
How teams are using Matter AI Assist day to day
What struck me, looking through the anonymised prompts, is that these three areas of use really do span the whole lifecycle of a matter. The questions people ask start off being very client-focused, then move into document and risk work, and end with operational and management tasks.
At the start of a file, fee-earners are often using Matter AI Assist to help clients and keep the case moving: asking it to summarise the current status so they can send an update, explain the purpose of an indemnity policy in plain English, or draft a short email or SMS to let a buyer know what happens next.
Once work is underway, the prompts shift towards the “heavy lifting” inside the matter. Users ask for summaries of long documents, lists of key points or risks, short reports for introducers, or help turning figures and clauses into something they can check quickly and then explain to a client.
Towards the end of a matter, usage becomes more operational. Matter AI Assist is used to tidy messages, make summaries more concise, create simple action plans from meeting notes, and run basic checks on invoices, completion statements and other financial documents before they go out.
If you would like to see a wider sample of real prompts and how they map onto everyday work, the separate guide AI that moves matters: A guide to AI for law firms in 2026 looks at these patterns across many firms in more detail.
Where this leaves your firm
Generative AI is already changing how legal work gets done. Used well, it can help firms turn work around faster, keep clients better informed and reduce the time spent on routine tasks.
It is also a technology that cannot be ignored. If you are not yet thinking seriously about where AI fits in your firm, you are already some way behind. Clients now expect technology to be part of how legal services are delivered, even if they still (rightly) have questions about data security and trust.
The firms that see the most benefit will be those with clear leadership, a simple strategy for where AI should be used, and a habit of measuring its impact in day-to-day work. The principle remains the same throughout this series: embrace AI, but keep human oversight and professional judgment at the centre.
This blog closes my series on AI for law firms. If you would like to revisit the earlier articles or explore other topics around legal technology, you can find the full series and more on the InTouch blog.
This series of blogs about AI is written by Peter Impey, General Counsel for InTouch. If you’re exploring how to use AI in your firm, you can find the full series and related articles on the InTouch blog.
