The Legal Agent: How AI Is Changing the Legal Field

The ShayAI platform developed by attorney Shai Oved provides tools that are transforming, from end to end, the way a complex legal case is approached, without giving up professional control at every stage, in cooperation with the law office of Shai Oved, Din Din. Published: 10.06.26, 20:20, chat gpt | Photo: AP

Technological acceleration has not spared the legal world. For lawyers handling complex cases in real estate, partition actions, inheritance, family law and civil litigation, the question is no longer whether to use artificial intelligence, but how to do so responsibly. There is a significant difference between firms that integrate general-purpose tools and a firm that has built its own internal infrastructure, tailored to the nature of its cases and clients.

That professional approach accompanied attorney Shai Oved, who developed the ShayAI platform, an artificial intelligence-based system that helps the firm manage the intake, sorting and case-strategy-building stages, while strictly preserving one important principle, legal judgment always remains with the attorney.

Infrastructure, not a substitute

It is important to clarify that ShayAI is not a "digital lawyer" and does not provide legal advice. It is an internal operating system for the firm, and in practice serves as an infrastructure layer that organizes information, maps risks, flags missing documents and suggests recommended next steps, based on the firm's expertise and experience.

"This is not only a semantic definition," explains attorney Oved. "The system defines the boundaries of use. Every output from the system, from an initial summary of an inquiry to a draft response to a client, is internal working material that undergoes human review before it leaves the firm. There is no possibility for the system to 'speak' with a client independently, and there is no possibility for a legal response to be sent without the explicit approval of the attorney."

Receiving an inquiry, from the first WhatsApp message to a clear picture

The first point of contact for most clients with the law firm is a WhatsApp message, sometimes brief and confused, sometimes packed with documents. This is where ShayAI comes into play as a preliminary sorting layer, it reads the inquiry, understands the context, identifies the type of legal matter and marks what is needed to advance the case, even in complex situations.

The output is not a response to the client. It is an internal summary sent to the attorney, along with suggestions for required steps, relevant documents, possible risks to review, and points that require a direct conversation. The attorney decides what to pass on to the client, in what language and at what time. The system shortens the path from the initial inquiry to a clear picture, not the path from inquiry to legal decision.

Risk mapping and missing documents

"A complex case is often a combination of many documents, multiple parties and tight deadlines. Under such conditions, the biggest loss is often not an obvious mistake but a detail that falls between the cracks, a document that did not arrive on time, a contradiction between versions, a date that was not checked," says attorney Oved.

Oved says that ShayAI maps all the material currently in the case, cross-checks it with known patterns in the firm's areas of expertise, and systematically flags the following points, which documents are missing or incomplete, where potential risks arise, and what the recommended next step is, for review and approval by the attorney. Oved explains that this is a support layer, nothing more: "The strategic question, whether to initiate proceedings, wait, propose a settlement or harden a position, remains with the attorney, based on his or her familiarity with the client, the other side and the court."

The system speeds up work, maps the material and raises flags, but does not send, advise or decide. Every message that leaves the firm is approved by the attorney.

Approval, safety and privacy

An AI system that operates a communication channel with clients must meet an especially high standard of caution. In ShayAI, the default assumption is negative: no sensitive external action is carried out automatically.

In practice, the infrastructure is built around several principles. One is a pre-send approval gate, every response to a client is shown to the attorney for approval before it is sent. Without approval, nothing is sent. Another important principle is owner locking, the attorney's phone number is protected at the infrastructure level, so the system cannot contact him or mistakenly present him as a client.

There is also a default no-send principle, in the production environment, real sending actions are disabled until the firm explicitly approves their activation. Another principle is preventing exposure of sensitive information, detection and masking mechanisms operate on outputs to reduce the risk that internal details will be sent out by mistake.

In addition, the system performs readiness checks before activation, it does not go into active mode before configuration and readiness tests confirm that all control mechanisms are armed.

"ShayAI's default state is ready, not autonomous. That is a professional decision, not a technical limitation," Oved clarifies.

Why it matters for the client

For the client, the effect of using the system is felt in three areas, response speed, clarity and confidence. "The initial inquiry does not get stuck in a queue," says Oved. "It receives a structured mapping within a short time, so when the attorney makes contact, he or she arrives with a clear picture and focused questions. The first meeting is not devoted to information gathering but to strategic discussion. The client understands more quickly what the risks are, what is urgent and what can be deferred to a later stage."

He adds an equally important point, the client knows they are dealing with a firm that integrates technology responsibly, that the system does not replace human and professional advice and does not answer in place of the attorney, and that all information and communication that reaches them undergo professional review.

"The right combination of artificial intelligence in legal work is not a marketing trend. It is necessary in the current era, where data can further sharpen and refine advice and guidance. AI-based tools are already part of the expected standard for firms handling complex cases, just as case management and document-computing systems became standard in the past. The difference today lies in the depth of integration and the degree of adaptation to the firm's specific practice," says attorney Oved.

According to him, ShayAI was built on the understanding that such a system should serve legal judgment, not replace it, speed up work, not bypass it, and strengthen client trust, not dilute it. In a legal world where case complexity is increasing and time pressure is rising, this is not an add-on, it is professional responsibility.

To learn about the firm and schedule a meeting, Shai Oved Law Office, website: shayoved.co.il

Attorney Shai Oved. The law office of Shai Oved handles real estate, partition actions, inheritances and wills, family law, civil-commercial litigation, administrative law and intellectual property. Meetings by prior arrangement.

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