AI for law firms: questions and answers
This page answers 12 questions law firms raise before putting an AI agent on their phones or in their intake process. In short: callers are told it is AI, it never gives legal advice, a person runs every conflict check, and Yes AI plans start at $299 per month ex GST, month to month.
The answers describe how Yes AI sets up agents for law firms. Where they touch on the law, they are general information and not legal advice.
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?
They should, and for a law firm the greeting should say so in its first sentence, for example “You have reached the AI assistant for” followed by the firm’s name. Your firm approves the exact words. The OAIC’s guidance on commercially available AI products says public-facing AI tools such as chatbots should be clearly identified to users, and that people should be made aware they are interacting with an AI system rather than a human. If a caller later asks whether they are speaking to a person, the agent’s rules should have it answer honestly.
Can the AI receptionist give legal advice?
No. The agent works from a written rule that it never gives advice, and a set reply for when a caller asks: it explains that it is an AI assistant and cannot advise, then offers a consultation or a call back from a solicitor. It does not assess whether a claim is strong, interpret a document, tell someone whether a time limit has passed, or suggest what to say to police. The regulators’ joint statement on AI says AI tools cannot reason, understand or advise, and advice must come from the lawyer’s own judgement.
How does it deal with conflicts of interest?
It does not run the conflict check, and it never tells a caller there is or is not a conflict. During a new enquiry the agent asks for the full names of the other parties, plus any former names, business names or related companies the caller mentions, and keeps the first call to basics. A person at the firm checks those names in your own system before a solicitor hears the substance. That order protects the firm from receiving confidential information from someone it may later act against.
Does using an AI agent put legal professional privilege at risk?
The risk to privilege comes from disclosure. The Law Society of New South Wales guide to responsible use of AI warns that putting confidential client information into a publicly available generative AI system may cost the client privilege. An agent engaged by the firm, under written confidentiality terms, whose messages go only to named staff, is a different arrangement from a public chatbot. Whether privilege attaches to a particular communication is a legal question your firm should answer with its own advisers.
Are calls recorded, and do callers need to be told?
It depends on the plan. Starter produces a message summary and voicemail transcription. Professional adds SMS notifications and booking. Full call recording and transcripts are part of the Custom plan. If calls are recorded or transcribed, callers should hear that at the start of the call; the OAIC’s quick reference to the privacy principles explains the duty under APP 5 to tell people about certain matters when their information is collected. Rules on recording calls also differ between states and territories, so check the position for where your callers are.
Where is call and message data stored?
Not always in Australia. Voice agents rely on telephony, speech and language model providers, and some of them run servers overseas; Yes AI’s privacy policy states this openly. What matters for a law firm is knowing exactly which provider holds each kind of data. Before go-live, get the providers, countries and retention periods for call audio, transcripts and messages in writing, and ask whether an Australian data region is available for each. The privacy guide explains why this matters under APP 8.
Can it connect to our practice management system?
Yes AI’s named integrations are Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho and Xero, among others. For a practice management or CRM system outside that list, the agent connects through its API where it has one. Where there is no suitable API, intake records arrive as a formatted email in a shared mailbox and staff file them. CRM integration is part of the Professional plan.
What happens with urgent calls, such as a client in custody?
Your firm writes the urgent triggers, such as “arrested”, “police station” or “hearing tomorrow”, and names who receives each kind of urgent call. The agent transfers those calls live. If the solicitor does not pick up, they get an SMS alert on the Professional plan, and the caller hears that their details are with the firm and roughly when to expect a call. The agent never promises representation or that a lawyer will attend. Anyone in immediate danger is told to hang up and ring Triple Zero (000). The after hours answering page has the full routing design.
What does it cost?
Starter is $299 per month with a $499 setup fee, for business hours. Professional is $599 per month with a $999 setup fee, and adds after hours and weekend coverage. Custom is quoted. Prices are in Australian dollars, ex GST, with no lock-in. The cost page compares this with an in-house receptionist and a legal answering service.
How long does setup take?
There is no standard setup period, because it depends on scope, and the written quote confirms the timing. A single business hours line that sends messages by email is quicker to set up than several practice area lines writing into a practice management system. The part that usually takes longest is the firm’s own: agreeing the urgent triggers, the fee wording and who receives which messages.
Can we start small?
Yes. Common first steps are sending only overflow calls to the agent when reception is busy, using it only after hours, or putting one practice area line on it first. Yes AI plans run month to month, so a firm can start with one of these and change plans once the call rules have settled. After hours cover needs the Professional plan.
What happens if the agent gets a message wrong?
It will sometimes mishear a name, a number or a date, as people do. The controls are the agent spelling names and numbers back to the caller, a person reading every message each business day, and reporting errors so the call rules and prompts can be adjusted. On the Custom plan, recordings and transcripts let you check what was actually said. Supervision stays with the firm: under rule 37.1 the solicitor responsible for a matter must supervise the staff working on it, and that includes checking what an AI agent passes on. See AI and solicitors’ professional obligations for more.
If your question is not here, send it through the enquiry form and leave out any details of a legal matter.