By Madison Johnson, Esq. | Supervisor, Giant Markets
The brand new 12 months has launched some terminology into the vocabulary of everybody who’s attempting to maintain up with the tempo of innovation in synthetic intelligence (AI) know-how.
“Synthetic intelligence brokers that may full duties for people on their very own have arrived on the tech scene,” MLex reported in January 2025, in response to product introductions at this 12 months’s Client Electronics Present (CES) that time to a future by which “the most recent AI know-how could make individuals’s lives higher and simpler.”
This know-how is already being examined and deployed within the authorized business. Welcome to the courageous new world of Agentic AI.
The Way forward for Agentic AI
Within the first technology of AI know-how, there have been “extractive” AI instruments that analyzed knowledge and used machine studying algorithms to foretell the following phrase in a sentence or end result in a situation. Subsequent we moved to “generative” AI that created new content material (i.e., textual content, pictures or music) primarily based on how the massive language fashions have been educated. We’ve now entered the “agentic” AI stage by which AI brokers will be capable of converse with customers and autonomously perform duties on their behalf.
“Agentic AI performs duties with restricted human interplay by way of software program applications referred to as brokers,” reported Law360 Pulse. “By taking motion and making selections, agentic AI differs from generative AI, which focuses extra on creating content material.”
So whereas generative AI depends on people prompting the know-how to create content material, agentic AI takes motion to routinely carry out particular duties for people.
Navigating Moral Implications
Agentic AI programs introduce thrilling capabilities for customers and supply companies a brand new device to assist their workers work extra effectively and successfully. On the similar time, the power of agentic AI to independently set targets and take motion elevate essential questions on moral issues and societal implications for these of us who work within the authorized business.
Some key moral issues for companies to navigate embrace the next:
- Bias and discrimination — Agentic AI programs can inherit and perpetuate biases current of their coaching knowledge, so companies should guarantee equity and keep away from implicit discrimination of their AI purposes.
- Transparency — It’s essential to grasp how agentic AI programs arrive at their selections as a way to construct belief and be sure that people are remaining within the loop to guarantee accountability.
- Privateness and knowledge safety — Agentic AI typically handles delicate private data, which is especially regarding for regulation corporations which have an moral responsibility to safeguard consumer knowledge and adjust to privateness laws.
- Job displacement — The automation potential of agentic AI raises issues about job safety for staff, so companies want to think about how one can assist any workers who could must adapt to new roles.
There are additionally some broader societal implications to the American authorized system that may have to be assessed as agentic AI turns into extra ubiquitous. For instance, agentic AI instruments can probably make entry to justice extra inexpensive for people, however you will need to guarantee equitable entry and keep away from perpetuating a digital divide. As well as, the usage of agentic AI should be rigorously managed to keep up public belief within the authorized system, which goes to require transparency and equity. And naturally, the authorized framework surrounding agentic AI will have to be addressed with accountable laws and governance.
The answer for AI corporations is being cautious and clear about what knowledge they’re utilizing to coach their agentic AI merchandise, each for shopper privateness and to raised safe knowledge, in accordance with D. Reed Freeman, a privateness and knowledge safety lawyer who was previously a workers lawyer within the FTC’s Bureau of Client Safety.
“We’re on the very starting of a wildly aggressive market, and every little thing counts,” Freeman informed MLex. This contains being “clear with prospects about what knowledge they’re gathering and the way they use it.”
Agentic AI within the Authorized House
“Simply as regulation corporations have been getting snug with generative AI, a extra superior know-how referred to as agentic AI is poised to develop into commonplace amongst attorneys,” reports Law360 Pulse.
LexisNexis just lately launched LexisNexis Protégé, an agentic AI device that we developed on three core values: Safety; Privateness; and guaranteeing a Human within the Loop. LexisNexis Protégé is a personal, trusted Authorized AI Assistant that locations the consumer in management and delivers uniquely personalised work product in a personal, safe setting. Personalization selections are managed by the consumer or their group to optimize the consumer’s Gen AI expertise.
Learn more about how Lexis+ AI might help authorized professionals obtain higher outcomes and observe alongside for the most recent in Authorized AI instructional content material.