Webinar replay: Agentic AI — what legal teams must check before adoption

# Webinar replay: Agentic AI — what legal teams must check before adoption

Date: Oct 1, 2026 | Source: Legal IT Insider | Host: Caroline Hill

Vendors are promoting autonomous AI agents that can perform tasks across systems. This webinar replay explains why that vision is still a step ahead of reality for many legal organisations. The discussion focuses on practical barriers — governance, security, permissions, data quality and trust — and offers a framework to judge whether an organisation is ready to delegate tasks to AI.

Why the question is no longer about models

Legal teams moving toward agentic AI are asking less about which model to choose and more about whether their information infrastructure can safely support agents that act on their behalf. The webinar cites iManage's rollout of MCP (a capability that enables AI to send emails and move documents) as a practical example: agents can now perform actions, but those actions bring inherent risks.

The five-stage delegation gradient

The governance gap

A central point of the webinar is the governance gap that appears once delegation increases. AI systems do not follow written policies unless those policies are enforced by infrastructure and permissions. Firms that move into higher-delegation stages without closing governance gaps expose themselves to errors, data leakage, and regulatory risk.

Permissioning and jurisdictional differences

Permissioning practices differ widely by jurisdiction. Some firms have locked down documents on a permissioned basis, others have not. The webinar argues that permissioning must be evaluated against the delegation stage: what you allow an agent to access should match the level of oversight you maintain.

Data quality and trust

Agentic AI requires reliable, well-governed data. Poor data quality and unclear provenance undermine trust in agent outputs. The webinar recommends assessing data quality as a prerequisite to advancing delegation, because agent decisions will reflect the state of underlying information.

Investment and the business case

What 'good enough' looks like

Within the context of permissioning and 'need to know' security, the webinar discusses practical thresholds for 'good enough.' That includes clear permission boundaries, audit trails for agent actions, defined escalation paths when agents act outside expected parameters, and staged rollouts aligned to the delegation gradient.

Where to learn more

The replay includes a useful slide of the delegation gradient and practical tips for implementation. iManage resources referenced in the webinar include a white paper titled "Exploring why trustworthy AI starts with governance, not guesswork." The webinar provides a foundation for conversations between IT, risk, and practice groups about safe, staged adoption of agentic AI.