This
morning,
LexisNexis
announced
the
commercial
preview
of
Protégé
AI
Workflows,
the
inevitable
next
shoe
to
drop
in
the
company’s
AI
push.
As
every
industry
searches
for
applications
that
can
turn
AI
from
a
novelty
into
productivity,
momentum
has
swung
toward
automation
and
building
“agents”
to
tackle
mundane
(or
not-so-mundane,
as
the
case
may
be)
workflows.
In
that
spirit,
LexisNexis
has
hundreds
of
pre-built
legal
automation
tools
paired
with
a
custom
workflow
builder
intended
to
streamline
everything
from
drafting
motions
to
redlining
contracts
against
firm
playbooks.
If
the
2025
legal
tech
word
of
the
year
was
“agents,”
it’s
telling
that
this
2026
LexisNexis
rollout
tamps
down
a
bit
on
that
energy.
While
not
eschewing
the
term
entirely,
the
company
puts
more
emphasis
on
more
familiar
—
and
more
trusted
—
terms
like
“automated
workflows.”
At
one
point,
even
describing
the
tasks
that
tech
investors
would
call
agentic
as
“a
teammate,”
a
word
I’ve
championed
for
legal
tech
specifically.
For
a
lawyer,
agency
means
hiring
someone
to
act
in
your
stead
and
take
10
percent
leaving
you
holding
the
liability
bag.
But
a
teammate
better
conjures
an
image
of
AI’s
role
—
a
fast-working,
valuable
junior
that
needs
professional
supervision.
Anyone
asking
attorneys
to
make
a
significant
investment
in
this
technology
—
either
financially
or
with
adoption
—
needs
to
understand
they’re
coaxing
nervous
squirrels
by
holding
out
a
nut.
Minimize
anything
that’s
going
to
scare
them.
So,
what
does
this
teammate
bring
to
the
table?
▪
Litigation
Workflows
–
Workflows
designed
to
support
disputes,
motions
practice,
discovery,
and
case
strategy.
Examples
include
draft
a
motion
to
dismiss,
draft
full
discovery
and
deposition
documents,
identify
top
cases
by
fact
pattern
or
legal
concept,
extract
facts,
and
compare
similar
arguments
or
laws
across
jurisdictions.▪
Transactional
Workflows
–
Workflows
focused
on
contracts,
deal
execution,
and
risk
assessment.
Examples
include
draft
a
transactional
document
or
clause,
generate
first-pass
agreements
from
term
sheets
or
templates,
redline
agreements
against
internal
standards
or
playbooks,
analyze
key
provisions
and
identify
high-risk
clauses,
review
contracts
for
diligence
risks,
and
extract
key
obligations
and
liabilities.▪
Broader
Legal
AI
Workflows
–
Designed
for
daily
legal
tasks
in
a
private,
secure
workspace,
powered
by
the
latest
AI
models
from
Anthropic
and
OpenAI
and,
in
the
U.S.,
integrated
with
LexisNexis
primary
law
and
Shepard’s®
Citations.
Examples
include
draft
a
client
alert,
extract
a
timeline
of
key
events,
summarize
an
interview,
and
transcribe
audio
to
text.
This
is
where
providers
with
a
deep
understanding
of
the
legal
sector
become
so
important.
Some
studies
suggest
that
consumer-facing
AI
products
like
ChatGPT
outperform
tools
built
specifically
for
the
legal
industry.
While
Grok
seems
to
excel
at
stripping
things
down
and
leaving
just
briefs,
it’s
a
lot
less
reckless
to
put
faith
in
the
people
who
understand
the
space
and
have
mountains
of
specific
data
to
power
their
offerings.
Even
if
a
consumer
tool
can
produce
viable
work
product
with
the
benefit
of
publicly
available
knowledge
right
now,
with
the
leap
toward
more
and
more
automation,
it’s
going
to
become
more
and
more
essential
that
the
architects
behind
those
products
draw
upon
trusted
experience
and
not
vibe
lawyering
built
by
an
idiot.
As
technology
starts
making
decisions
without
direct
lawyer
intervention,
it
speeds
up
the
process
in
a
manner
that
invites
its
own
accidents.
Preventing
errors
when
firms
go
“GPTsus
take
the
wheel,”
as
I’ve
put
it
in
the
past,
will
depend
on
good
design,
not
a
bot
trying
to
figure
out
how
to
perform
tasks
by
scraping
r/sovereigncitizen.
How
these
workflows
come
together
and
avoid
slippage
when
promising
“end-to-end”
work
will
be
the
secret
sauce.
And
to
the
extent
a
firm
wants
to
introduce
their
own
idiosyncrasies,
LexisNexis
will
have
a
custom
builder
for
customers
to
build
their
own
systems
leveraging
their
own
experience.
This
commercial
preview
seeks
feedback
from
key
LexisNexis
customers,
but
the
company
expects
to
roll
out
Protégé
workflows
more
broadly
2026.
The
pre-built
and
configurable
workflows,
as
well
as
their
Workflow
Builder,
will
launch
across
the
U.S.,
Canada,
U.K.,
Europe,
and
Asia
Pacific
markets.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.