AI in Legal Functions: How the Responsible Use of AI Drives Trust

by Mike Loftus,
Senior Group Legal Counsel, Clickatell

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept, it’s a present-day enabler of speed, scale, and strategic alignment. At Clickatell, where we power chat commerce for global brands, we’re seeing AI redefine how businesses engage with customers, but also how legal and compliance teams embed trust into those engagements. 

AI's value is often framed around cost savings and automation. Those benefits are real, but they’re not the full story. In my experience, the transformative impact of AI lies in its ability to foster trust: trust in our processes, in our controls, and in the reliability of our relationships.  

That trust is being built most tangibly in two critical areas: contracting and compliance.

Reimagining Contracting: From Bottleneck to Business Enabler

 For many companies, contracting can feel like a speed bump on the road to revenue - slow, manual, and heavily reliant on stretched legal resources. Yet AI is reshaping this dynamic.

At Clickatell, we use responsible and secure AI-powered tools to streamline reviews, standardize commercial terms, and improve turnaround times. This enhances the experience for our customers and partners by reducing delays and increasing clarity, while also creating internal efficiency.

Crucially, AI doesn’t replace legal judgment, but amplifies it. By reducing repetitive administrative work, we are freed to focus on what truly matters: strategic negotiation, risk calibration, and helping the business close deals faster and more responsibly. Additionally, AI  enhances transparency, offering traceable audit trails, strengthening governance and overall confidence.

Proactive Compliance for a Real-Time World 

With the digital environment defined by immediacy and global complexity, reactive compliance is no longer good enough. Regulatory frameworks - especially those governing data privacy, digital communications, and platform integrity, are evolving rapidly. Compliance must evolve faster.

We’re leveraging AI to do just that. With the right tools, one can detect potential risks earlier, validate one’s actions against internal and external frameworks, and maintain visibility across varying jurisdictions. In a frontline sector such as chat commerce, where the line between a helpful message and a compliance breach can be razor-thin, that responsiveness is invaluable.

Today, compliance goes beyond being just a line of defence, to the very foundation of digital trust and trust is what customers remember.

Trust Is the New Currency

 Every digital interaction is a brand promise. Whether it’s a delivery update, a support chat, or a purchase confirmation - customers expect those engagements to be secure, seamless, and respectful of their valuable data.

 AI, when applied responsibly, helps us meet those expectations. From anomaly detection to real-time policy enforcement, AI allows one to mitigate risk without sacrificing user experience. It’s how we uphold integrity without introducing friction, to build long-term loyalty, and it is loyalty that provides you with a competitive advantage.

 A Legal Function Aligned to the Pace of Business 

At Clickatell, our legal and compliance functions operate with the same principles that guide our product and sales teams: intentional design, robust oversight, and an unwavering focus on customer success. We have adopted AI not for the sake of novelty, but to become faster, sharper, and more attuned to how our business and our customers work. We’re cutting time to revenue, strengthening our commercial agility, and ensuring every transaction is built on a foundation of trust.

Legal is no longer the team that slows things down. We’re the ones helping the business move forward with confidence. For us, every interaction is an opportunity to prove reliability and every moment of engagement is a moment to earn trust.