Why It Matters
Generative AI is the reason legal tech changed so fast after 2023. It moved software from storing and finding work to producing first drafts of it. For legal teams the useful question is not whether a tool uses generative AI, but which tasks it does reliably, where the data goes and how the output is checked.
Related Terms
- LLM (large language model)
- The type of AI model behind ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and most legal AI assistants, trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language.
- AI agent
- An AI system that carries out a multi-step task on its own, such as gathering documents, reviewing them against a checklist and drafting a summary, rather than answering a single prompt.
- AI copilot
- An AI assistant built into software people already use, such as Word or a practice management system, that suggests drafts, edits and answers as they work.
- Prompt engineering
- Writing instructions for an AI tool in a way that reliably produces the output you need: the task, the context, the format and the constraints.
General information, not legal advice. Part of the Legal Tech Glossary, 173 terms in plain English.