Smarsh AI agents speed up legal discovery work
Smarsh, a company that helps organizations manage digital communications, is deploying AI agents to accelerate the legal discovery process-the phase of litigation where parties exchange evidence and documents.
CEO Kim Crawford Goodman discussed the technology in a recent interview, focusing on how AI agents reduce the time lawyers spend reviewing documents manually. The agents can identify relevant materials, flag potential issues, and organize findings faster than traditional methods.
What this means for legal teams
Legal discovery typically involves sifting through thousands or millions of emails, messages, and files. AI agents handle initial sorting and categorization, freeing lawyers to focus on analysis and strategy rather than document triage.
The approach addresses a real cost driver in litigation. Discovery expenses often consume significant portions of legal budgets, particularly in cases involving large volumes of communications.
The practical application
Smarsh's agents work within existing workflows, integrating with the tools lawyers already use. They apply pattern recognition to identify documents relevant to specific legal issues, reducing the volume that requires human review.
The technology doesn't replace legal judgment-it handles the preliminary work that precedes it. Lawyers still make the final determinations about what matters and how to use it.
For more on AI for Legal work and how AI agents and automation are changing professional practices, see our coverage of workplace AI applications.
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