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AI legal software leader Harvey has launched Intake, a new product designed to streamline legal requests and improve efficiency for law firms and in-house legal teams.
In-house legal teams are facing growing demand, tighter budgets and increasing pressure to deliver faster, more efficient support across their respective businesses.
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Ashleigh Whittaker, director, APAC strategy and country manager for Australia and New Zealand at Harvey, discussed how the company’s new Intake platform aims to streamline legal requests, reduce administrative burdens and connect employees with legal expertise more efficiently.
Whittaker explained how Harvey goes beyond generic AI tools by embedding legal knowledge, policies, and oversight into everyday workflows, and why in-house legal departments are an important focus of the company’s broader vision for transforming legal work.
The new product comes after Harvey reinforced its focus on legal education and expanded its international presence, rolling out its software to 100 law schools and opening a new office in Asia.
Improving efficiency for in-house lawyers
Whittaker explained how Harvey’s Intake offering aims to reduce administrative burdens and help in-house legal teams manage growing demand.
“In-house teams are fielding more requests from the business every year, but budgets and headcount haven’t kept pace,” Whittaker said.
“Too much of a lawyer’s day goes into chasing missing details, routing requests and providing status updates, rather than work that needs legal judgement.
“Intake takes that work off their plate. Harvey captures requests from the tools people already use, then gathers the context and takes a first pass.”
By automating mundane tasks and streamlining request management, the aim of Intake is to free up lawyers to focus on work that requires their expertise.
“Routine matters can be resolved by an approved agent, anything that needs judgement reaches the right lawyer with the context and a draft already prepared,” Whittaker said.
“The business can also see the status of every request, which cuts down the follow-up emails legal teams deal with every day.
“That gives legal teams more capacity to meet growing demand, get answers to the business faster and focus on work where their expertise matters most.”
Legal teams going beyond generic AI tools for legal work
Whittaker noted that Intake builds on Harvey’s existing capabilities to connect legal requests with the right expertise, while keeping in-house teams in control.
“Intake builds on the capture, triage and review capabilities we announced with Contract Intelligence in May, extending them to every legal request,” Whittaker said.
“It connects those requests (such as employment, product, or compliance-related legal questions) from across the business to the right agent, lawyer or solution, with contract work flowing into Contract Intelligence.
“The difference is what happens beyond generating an answer. A legal request needs to be understood in the context of the company’s policies, prior decisions and approved positions, then carried through to resolution.”
This broader approach allows legal teams to retain oversight of how AI handles requests, from initial assessment through to the final solution.
“Intake gathers that business-specific context, routes the work and returns answers and updates through the channels employees already use,” Whittaker said.
“Our broader vision for Harvey is, one platform connecting the business, its legal team and external counsel, where the legal department’s knowledge and judgmeent guide both the advice and the work that follows.”
Why Harvey is focusing on in-house legal
Whittaker explained why in-house lawyers are paramount to Harvey’s strategy, given their role in supporting business operations while managing risk, costs and growing demand.
“In-house lawyers are at the centre of how a business operates; sales contracts, supplier agreements, employment questions and marketing approvals all reach Legal, often with little notice and through different channels,” Whittaker said.
“Legal departments are expected to support growth while managing costs and risk, even as demand outpaces their capacity.”
With Intake, Harvey is extending its existing legal AI capabilities to address the broader challenges facing in-house departments.
“For in-house teams, the question has shifted from how to get lawyers to use AI for individual productivity, to how to run the entire department on it,” Whittaker said.
“Harvey is foundational to that shift, and Intake extends it across the business, with legal’s knowledge and judgement guiding how requests are answered and work gets done.”
