Future-Proofing Legal Operations: Insights into AI, LLMs, and Next-Gen Tools

I was thinking what the right way would be to start the discussion about the amazing new AI wave which is redesigning various industries and will disrupt all jobs regardless of their collar, including the legal industry. The best way I could think of to highlight the potential for legal professionals to leverage AI beyond just what we already discussed in this book around robotic process automation and deployment of software robots for various legal workflows, or other AI initiatives around generative AI and the vast opportunities presented there around improved productivity, research, and reasoning by lawyers interacting with chatbots, was by presenting a practical case of how AI is already redesigning everything we do beyond just being a productivity helper. AI can now be even your own legal infrastructure developer.

What do I mean by that? Lawyers can now build their own solutions in-house for basic automation and digitization by using natural language with no-code and low-code tools such as lovable.dev or v0.dev. With the help of these developer AI tools, you can easily build the minimum viable product (MVP) or demo by just chatting with the AI as you would talk to a developer willing to listen to a lawyer (there probably is such a developer somewhere!).

Once you build the solution with the parameters needed to best support the process or workflow you have in mind, you can then make your case to your internal stakeholders for the needed specific, clear, and low-budget resources, presented with the demo of the solution and the KPIs and benefits a production-ready solution will bring. In this way, you essentially build the solution from scratch based on your specific needs and requirements, using your internal know-how and resources without the need to allocate huge budgets for outside vendors offering point-specific solutions which may be expensive, not matching or corresponding to your specific needs, and which would require RFPs, evaluation, selection, contracting, onboarding, training, maintenance, recurring payments, security and privacy validations, adjustments with additional professional services and costs, etc.

This contrasts with how we at UiPath made the Salesforce platform work for our legal contract management needs back then. We didn't have AI tools, so we used the traditional approach – Joachim (Head of Sales) and I presented the idea to our CFO, Mihai, who understood the need and benefits and approved the cost. At that point, budgets were less formalized; showing the benefits often led to approval without lengthy business cases. Because we didn't have internal developers to spare, the small cost to hire someone externally for a temporary project was ideal. But the underlying idea – identifying a need and building a solution – is the same; only the execution is different, while the tools at your disposal now are more potent, agile, visual, fast, and smart.

Considering this, I have included below the conversation for three simple tools I have built with the help of AI (lovable.dev): VisualTwin for policies/contracts, an EU AI Act compliance tool, and a document management tool. The specific tools will change rapidly, but the capability (AI-assisted low-code/no-code development) is the key trend to watch and leverage.

Example 1: VisualTwin

• Vasile (Concept): Build an app to transform complex text (policies, contracts) into simple visual representations (actions, roles, responsibilities).
• ChatGPT Refined Description (Input for Lovable): (Summary) App Name: VisualTwin. Vision: Create intuitive "Visual Twins" from dense documents. Problem: Difficulty communicating complex docs. Solution: No-code AI app uploads docs, extracts/summarizes key points into structured text, supports visualization via integrations. Key MVP Features: Upload, AI extraction, structured output, export/sharing. Tech: Lovable AI, Zapier/Make, Miro/Lucidchart etc.
• Lovable (Response & Approach Summary): Acknowledged vision (Apple-like simplicity). Proposed V1 features:
  • Document upload with elegant drag-and-drop interface
  • AI document processing visualization
  • Structured summary display with clean typography
  • Visual diagram generation (initial version)
  • Export functionality (Commented on design direction: clean layout, subtle accents, smooth animations) Let me build a polished first version!
• And it created a working prototype:

 https://open.substack.com/pub/vasiletiple/p/edition-9?r=46gh8

Example 2: EU AI Compliance App

• Vasile (Input to Lovable): Easy, minimal web app for retail/e-commerce/marketing to ensure EU AI Act compliance via short questionnaire generating tailored documents (Notices, Policies). Secure Supabase backend. Must be intuitive, no tech expertise needed.
• Lovable (Response & Approach Summary): Acknowledged vision (Apple/Dieter Rams simplicity). Drew inspiration from Notion/Linear. Proposed V1 features:
  • A streamlined onboarding experience and questionnaire flow
  • Document generation system with preview functionality
  • Simple account dashboard to view and manage documents
  • Clean, intuitive document viewer with download options
• (Lovable's Result Description): Created a minimalist AI compliance application with a beautiful landing page and interactive questionnaire flow...
• And it created a working prototype:

https://open.substack.com/pub/vasiletiple/p/edition-9?r=46gh8

Example 3: Document Management App

• Vasile (Input to Lovable): Create an app for easy Word/PDF editing and eSignature.
• Lovable (Response & Approach Summary): Acknowledged vision (elegance, user-focus of premium tools). Proposed V1 features:
  • A clean, intuitive dashboard for document management
  • Document editing capabilities for both Word and PDF formats
  • E-signature functionality with a smooth sign experience
  • Document preview with high-quality rendering
• (Lovable's Result Description): I've created a clean, minimalist document editing and e-signature app...
• And it created a working prototype:

 https://open.substack.com/pub/vasiletiple/p/edition-9?r=46gh8

Impressive, right? (Lovable also provides generic 'What's next?' guidance like Refine, Add Backend, GitHub Sync, Debug etc.) It is important to remember the potential here; these examples generate workable demos, not just static sketches. It's a great way to brainstorm, validate ideas with stakeholders, understand limits, and refine requirements before committing significant resources for production use.

Looking further ahead, we are close to having AI agents capable of handling complex tasks autonomously. Imagine validating an AI-generated MVP, then having that AI coordinate specialized agents (backend, integrations, database, legal, HR, etc.) to create the production-ready version. We are on the road to potentially seeing billion-dollar companies managed by a few people helped by thousands of AI agents. The implications are staggering for all industries, potentially upending employment, and culture as we know it today if not managed properly.

This rapidly accelerating technological environment is full of both opportunity and disruption. It also underscores the essential need for strategic thinking that goes beyond immediate fixes. Future-proofing and maintaining continuous efficiency requires balancing today's needs with a clear view of tomorrow.

Actionable Steps to Prepare for the Future

As we have seen in the previous section, it is imperative to prepare for the future that many might say is here already. Technological change (especially in AI) is accelerating weekly (if not daily), presenting both huge opportunities and significant challenges and responsibilities for legal professionals. Why legal professionals? Because they are the only properly equipped category of professionals to understand how the legal rules can support responsible and ethical AI development and navigate the inevitable large-scale adoption challenges. If legal professionals are not ready to tackle what AI means and brings to society, the task will fall on developers and lawmakers who might not be proficient enough in how the law works and what its internal mechanics and principles are. Although the future might seem overwhelming and our role insignificant, this is not true. Each of us has a role and is able to influence within their own environment how AI works and it is used, even if only a handful of legal professionals can also influence how AI is developed: yes, I mean the talented individuals at OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon, Anthropic, Mistral etc. To prepare for the future (which is already here), we need to identify the practical, actionable steps that any legal team or professional can start taking today, regardless of current resources or tech maturity.”

The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

By Vasile Tiple, former General Counsel and Head of Legal Automation at UiPath Inc