Microsoft built an AI agent for laywers in Word. Let’s hope it doesn’t go berserk.
Microsoft has introduced an AI-powered Legal Agent within Word designed to assist lawyers with contract review and editing. The tool can analyze clauses, compare document versions, and suggest changes while preserving formatting. However, concerns remain about potential inaccuracies, as generative AI has previously produced false legal citations in real cases.
- ▪The Legal Agent is available through Copilot in Word for users in Microsoft's Frontier program in the U.S.
- ▪It performs tasks like clause-by-clause contract review, risk flagging, and tracked-edit suggestions without requiring a separate app.
- ▪The tool maintains original document formatting, tables, lists, and negotiation history during edits.
- ▪Generative AI tools have previously hallucinated legal cases and citations, leading to real-world legal issues.
- ▪Legal Agent currently works only on Word for Windows desktop and may require a restart to appear.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Microsoft Word is getting an AI legal agent, which sounds helpful until you remember how badly this has gone before. The new Legal Agent can review contracts, suggest edits, compare versions, and flag risky clauses inside Word. On paper, these features sound quite useful and convenient, however, cases of generative AI tools hallucinating and inventing entire cases, citations and quotes from thin air have dragged some real people in real court trouble before. What can Microsoft’s Legal Agent do? Microsoft says Legal Agent is available through Copilot in Word for users in its Frontier program in the U.S. It currently works on Word for Windows desktop. There is no separate app or installation required, though some users may need to restart Word before the agent appears.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Digital Trends.
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