Want the Business to Follow Your Legal Process? Build an AI‑Powered Intake They’ll Actually Use
McKinsey once estimated that roughly 23% of a lawyer’s work is automatable. Yet for many in‑house teams, 100% of requests still arrive as unstructured email, Slack pings, and hallway asks. The result: context switching, unclear SLAs, and slow answers that frustrate legal and the business alike. The fix isn’t a bigger queue—it’s a better front door.
The Problem: Hidden Friction In Your “Open Door”
When intake is ad‑hoc, you pay in three ways: 1) triage time skyrockets because every request is bespoke; 2) answers vary by who’s online; and 3) risk hides in one‑off exceptions you can’t audit. Sales, procurement, and marketing want fast, predictable guidance. Legal wants consistent, defensible outcomes. Email threads don’t deliver either.
An AI‑powered intake flips the script. You create one front door that routes every request, captures context, and applies your playbooks automatically—escalating to humans when it matters. Instead of hunting for the right person, the business gets the right path, every time.
Why Now: From Legacy CLM To Modular, AI‑Guided Flows
Legacy CLM suites tried to be everything; most became shelfware for busy teams. Modular “CLM‑Lite” plus AI is different: you deploy the specific flows that matter (e.g., NDAs, vendor DPAs, marketing claims), and let AI do the tedious parts—classification, data extraction, first‑draft guidance, and document generation—within your guardrails.
What’s changed:
- Chat‑native UX (Slack/Teams) puts intake where work already happens.
- Retrieval‑augmented AI cites your policies and playbooks, not the open web.
- Safer deployment: SSO, DLP, and audit logs meet enterprise requirements.
The business sees less friction; legal sees more control.
What Good Looks Like: A Front Door They Prefer
A usable intake is simple, guided, and grounded in your rules.
- Single entry point: Slack/Teams app, email alias, or portal—pick one, make it obvious.
- Smart triage: AI classifies request type and urgency, captures required fields, and routes to the right queue or self‑serve path.
- Policy‑backed answers: Responses include short reasoning and links to your source positions.
- Self‑serve docs: Generate low‑risk agreements (e.g., mutual NDA) with approved templates and e‑signature.
- Human‑in‑the‑loop: Escalate edge cases with full context and a suggested draft.
- Auditability: Every decision, clause, and approval is logged.
If the path to “yes” is faster through legal than around it, adoption takes care of itself.
A Six‑Step Framework To Ship In Weeks
1) Pick one high‑volume use case. NDAs, vendor reviews, marketing claims, or basic privacy questions are perfect pilots.
2) Codify your playbook. Turn positions into Q&A rules: inputs, allowed outputs, fallback criteria, and redlines. Keep it opinionated.
3) Design the front door. Decide where requests start (Slack/Teams, email, or portal) and the minimum fields you need to act.
4) Automate the easy 80%. Let AI classify, extract vendor data, draft the first response, and fill templates. Escalate the rest.
5) Set SLAs and visibility. Show status to requesters; route by workload; use checklists for reviewers. No black boxes.
6) Measure and iterate. Track adoption, cycle time, deflection, and accuracy. Tune prompts and playbooks weekly.
Sandstone customers often start with a one‑click NDA flow, then layer vendor DPAs and marketing reviews—strength through layers.
Metrics That Matter (And How To Move Them)
- Adoption rate (% of requests through the front door): Aim for 75%+ in 60 days. Drive it with auto‑reply nudges and a better UX than email.
- Cycle time (request to answer/signature): Target 50–70% faster on low‑risk matters via self‑serve.
- Deflection rate (% solved without human review): 30–60% for NDAs and FAQs with good playbooks.
- Escalation quality (signal‑to‑noise): Increase the share of escalations that truly need counsel.
- Accuracy with citations: Require every AI answer to link to a specific policy, clause, or playbook page.
- Requester CSAT: A two‑question pulse (“Was this helpful?” “What was missing?”) keeps you honest.
Tools & Integration Notes: Make It Natural
Your intake should blend into existing systems, not fight them.
- Channels: Slack/Teams, email alias, and a simple web form for external stakeholders.
- Data: Sync vendor/CRM records to pre‑fill names, addresses, and risk tiers.
- Documents: Generate from approved templates; send to e‑signature automatically.
- Systems: Hand off to your CLM or ticketing tool when deeper workflows are needed.
On Sandstone, AI agents classify requests, pull the right positions from your knowledge layer, propose an answer with citations, and spin up a draft document or task—while logging every step. It’s crafted precision with natural integration.
Actionable Next Step
This week, ship a one‑click NDA intake: define required fields, connect your mutual NDA template, and enable self‑serve e‑signature for low‑risk counterparties. Measure adoption, deflection, and cycle time for 30 days. Then layer your next flow.
When legal is the fastest path to clarity, the business stops routing around you. An AI‑powered intake anchored in your playbooks turns institutional knowledge into action—and turns legal from a reactive queue into the connective tissue of speed, alignment, and trust. That’s the foundation Sandstone helps you build, one layered workflow at a time.