Stop Managing Legal Intake in Email: AI Agents Turn Triage…

Stop Managing Legal Intake in Email: AI Agents Turn Triage Into Throughput

Seventy percent of in-house legal requests still arrive as free‑form emails or Slack pings. Each one spawns multiple follow-ups just to collect basics—counterparty name, contract type, due date—before any real work starts. That friction hides risk, drags cycle times, and burns trust with the business. In 2025, AI agents make intake the fastest part of the process, not the slowest.

The Cost of Inbox Intake No One Budgets For

Shared inboxes and ad hoc DMs feel flexible, but they create operational debt:

Fragmented context: details scattered across threads mean rework and missed handoffs.
Invisible pipeline: no clear queue, no SLA tracking, no forecast for the GC.
Slow starts: lawyers chase basics, instead of applying judgment and moving work forward.
Vanishing knowledge: playbooks and positions live in heads, not in the flow of work.

That debt compounds. When volume spikes—product launches, vendor renewals, audits—you don’t have a system, you have a scramble. The result: delayed deals, escalations, and a reputation that legal is a bottleneck.

What AI Intake Looks Like on Sandstone

Sandstone’s AI agents sit where work already happens—email, Slack, Teams, portals—and transform unstructured requests into structured, routed, and ready-to-work matters. The experience is simple for requesters and powerful for legal:

Capture: Accept requests from existing channels or a lightweight form; no behavior change required.
Understand: Extract entities (counterparty, contract subtype, renewal date), identify risk signals (PII, cross‑border data flows), and map to the right workflow.
Complete: Ask for missing inputs in the same channel, using friendly, policy‑aware prompts.
Route: Assign to the correct queue or person based on workload, domain, and SLA.
Start: Create a matter record, attach the right playbook, and suggest the correct template (e.g., mutual NDA vs. unilateral NDA) or next step (e.g., DPA required).
Update: Auto‑acknowledge with an ETA, keep the requester informed, and escalate exceptions with context.

Strength through layers is the point: every intake, triage, and decision adds data to your knowledge layer. Over time, Sandstone turns playbooks, positions, and approvals into a living operating system—so judgment scales, not just headcount.

KPIs That Prove It’s Working in 30 Days

You don’t need a six‑month transformation to see value. Track these metrics after go‑live:

Time‑to‑acknowledge: Minutes, not hours. Auto‑acks set expectations and reduce follow‑ups.
First‑touch completeness: % of requests that arrive with all required fields and docs.
Auto‑routed share: % of requests assigned without human triage.
SLA attainment by workflow: NDAs, vendor reviews, DPAs—see where you’re on time and why.
Cycle time deltas: Compare pre‑ and post‑intake for common matters.
Requester satisfaction: A two‑question pulse in the same channel closes the loop.

Mini‑case: A mid‑market SaaS team pointed Sandstone agents at NDAs and vendor reviews. Within weeks, requesters got instant ETAs, 80% of NDA requests arrived complete, and legal delivered same‑day turnarounds without adding headcount. The GC finally had a live dashboard of demand and bottlenecks for QBRs.

How to Pilot Without Rewiring Your Stack

Keep the pilot narrow, outcomes‑focused, and aligned to the business calendar.

Pick one high‑volume workflow (NDAs or vendor intake) and define “done.”
Connect channels: route a dedicated email/Slack alias into Sandstone; keep the old path in parallel for safety.
Encode the playbook: required fields, standard positions, and exception paths. Sandstone’s agents use these rules to collect, classify, and route.
Set SLAs and ownership: who covers what, when to escalate, and how to notify requesters.
Turn on guardrails: auto‑approve low‑risk items; flag sensitive data and cross‑border issues.
Measure the KPIs above weekly; share results with stakeholders at two weeks and at 30 days.

Because Sandstone blends into how your team already works, the pilot proves value without a rip‑and‑replace. If it works, scale to DPAs, SOWs, marketing review, and product counseling—each adding a new layer of reusable knowledge.

Actionable Next Step

Stand up a 30‑day AI intake pilot for NDAs:

Create an nda@ alias or Slack channel; point it to Sandstone.
Load your NDA templates and fallback positions; set a 4‑hour acknowledgment SLA.
Track time‑to‑ack, completeness, and cycle time. Share a one‑page result with Sales and Finance.

You’ll know within two weeks if AI‑driven intake is turning triage into throughput—and if it’s ready to expand.

The Bedrock of Trust and Growth

When intake is structured, visible, and fast, legal stops firefighting and starts compounding knowledge. Sandstone’s layered data, modular workflows, and natural integration turn every request into an asset. That’s how legal becomes connective tissue—accelerating deals, reducing risk, and earning trust as the operating foundation for growth.