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Dmitry Grinik founder and CEO of Legaline Platform told Gulf News that artificial intelligence adoption by UAE law firms and consulting practices has advanced rapidly from experimentation to practical operational use. The transition has been especially pronounced during the past three to six months as regional disruptions have increased demands for contract reviews renegotiations and enhanced compliance measures. Grinik pointed to situations where a long dormant supply chain agreement suddenly requires scrutiny of its force majeure provisions to determine corporate exposure or protection. This evolution enables legal teams to process workloads that previously demanded substantially greater time and personnel according to the August 26 report.
Rather than eliminating routine duties the technology expands the capacity of lawyers to manage repetitive assignments with greater efficiency a Gulf News assessment found. While major international practices initiated automation years earlier mid sized firms in the UAE are now adopting comparable systems to stay competitive. Grinik estimated that implementing AI agents throughout daily workflows could require nine to 12 months for many of those practices owing to restricted internal technology support. The report noted that such changes are helping professionals address the growing volume of cases across varied regulatory environments.
Legal practices are also converting archived case documents past contracts and internal precedents from static records into active AI accessible knowledge bases according to Grinik. Companies in the UAE frequently operate under overlapping frameworks that combine federal statutes emirate specific rules and common law systems in the Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market. The presence of more than 40 free zones introduces additional compliance obligations that complicate manual contract examinations across hundreds of documents the Gulf News report stated. Grinik described manual processes in this setting as both time consuming and inconsistent.
Artificial intelligence tools can analyse extensive contract collections within hours while highlighting potentially unclear unenforceable or non compliant provisions a development detailed in the report. Multiple AI systems may examine the same material from separate angles before generating organised evaluations yet final interpretations of clauses such as force majeure remain subject to human legal expertise. Grinik characterised the tools as an extension of professional judgement rather than a replacement for it. The primary gain lies in shifting organisations from reactive responses after disputes arise toward proactive identification of vulnerabilities in advance.
Grinik indicated that the opportunity for AI in the UAE legal sector reaches beyond single practices to support a wider ecosystem. The country’s objective of having 50 per cent of government functions powered by agentic artificial intelligence by 2028 could foster integrated development among legal databases data centres academic institutions and technology platforms according to the executive. He anticipates that AI enabled legal systems will transition from offering competitive edges to representing standard expectations by the close of 2026. This trajectory aligns with the UAE’s established complexity that includes multiple jurisdictions and an international business community making it a prime environment for legal technology validation.
The UAE is viewed by Grinik as the most compelling legal market globally at present for developing and testing legaltech solutions. A Gulf News report from July 28 described the launch of the world’s first fully integrated AI powered judicial platform earlier that month which automates case file analysis provides immediate access to regulations and supports decision making while reserving final rulings for human judges. An earlier Gulf News article from April 2025 reported the UAE cabinet approval of a Legislative Intelligence Office to create an AI driven map of federal and local laws linked to court decisions and public services. The combined initiatives underscore a national commitment to embedding artificial intelligence throughout the justice and regulatory framework.
