In Spring 2025, Harvard Law School plans to offer a course on “Agentic Artificial Intelligence and the Law,” reflecting the growing significance of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) in legal practice. Agentic AI refers to systems capable of autonomous decision-making, task execution, and adapting to dynamic environments without direct human oversight. Unlike Generative AI (GenAI), which creates content such as text or images, agentic AI focuses on goal-oriented actions and independent problem-solving.

The transformative potential of agentic AI lies in its ability to handle complex workflows, akin to a human employee, enabling automation of tasks traditionally performed by junior lawyers. This could reshape legal practice by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and requiring lawyers to adapt their skills to collaborate with such systems.