The shift from co-pilots to agents: why legal tech’s next chapter isn’t just about lawyers

At Legal Tech Talk 2025, our CEO, Richard Mabey, spoke about a shift that’s starting to reshape the legal tech landscape: the move from AI co-pilots to AI agents.

This evolution isn’t just about upgrading the tools lawyers use. It’s about fundamentally changing who does the work, how that work flows across teams, and what the in-house legal role will look like in the next five years.

Here’s what we’re seeing - and why it matters.

From tools that help lawyers, to systems that act

When large language models first became usable in a commercial context, many vendors responded by building co-pilot-style assistants. These tools sit inside Word or email, helping lawyers get to a first draft faster. They’re useful, but they don’t change much about the structure of legal work itself.

An agent does. Agents can take context from your existing contracts, make intelligent decisions, and act autonomously within defined workflows. They can triage a contract for review, escalate exceptions, send for approval, and push to signature, without a lawyer needing to click through the steps.

The result isn’t just speed. It’s scalability.

Contracting is an enterprise problem, not just a legal one

One of the key points Richard made during his talk is that legal tech can’t only be about helping lawyers lawyer faster. Contracting occurs across the business, including sales, HR, procurement, and operations. The legal team is often the owner, but not always the driver.

That’s why we believe the next generation of legal technology should help legal teams enable the business, not block it. AI agents make this possible by letting non-lawyers self-serve safely, within the boundaries legal sets.

It's a mindset shift. From legal as doer, to legal as architect.

Watch the full interview with Richard above.

Intelligence is more than just language

What makes Juro’s approach to agents different is the combination of two things: memory and workflow.

Memory means our agents don’t just look at one contract in isolation. They understand the context of your existing agreements – the fallback positions you’ve used before, your clause preferences, and what you’ve agreed with counterparties in the past. That knowledge informs the decisions they make.

Workflow means these decisions aren’t happening in a silo. Juro is an end-to-end contract automation platform. Agents can move seamlessly between review, approval, signature, and renewal – because it all happens in one system. The agent is embedded, not bolted on.

The future in-house team will look very different

We’re already seeing this shift play out with our customers. Legal teams are overseeing agents, not just doing the work themselves. They're setting rules, designing workflows, and becoming operational enablers.

At the same time, we’re seeing lawyers in new roles entirely – as product managers, legal engineers, and implementation specialists. People with legal training who are driving change, not just reviewing documents.

The next five years will bring more of this. Routine work will be handled by agents. Legal teams will focus on the high-context, high-impact challenges and the soft skills needed to influence and lead across the business.

AI won’t replace lawyers. But it will replace a lot of legal work and we believe that’s a good thing.