With a small team and growing contract volumes, legal could not keep pace with the speed of the business. Reviews were lengthy, processes felt out of sync, and legal risked being seen as a blocker rather than a business partner.
At Fusion5 we talk often about being Customer Zero. That means testing, trialling, and proving the value of new technology inside our own business before we take it to our customers. Agent Claire is one of those stories. Introduced into our own legal team, she shows how AI can deliver real productivity gains, shift perceptions, and change the way we work.
Context and Catalyst
Fusion5’s legal team is small but mighty. With just a handful of lawyers supporting a fast-growing business, the volume of contracts kept climbing faster than the team could realistically keep up.
General Counsel, Belinda Muir, could see the pressure building.
We were a lean machine, but there was only so much we could do. The truth is, you’re never going to have enough lawyers to match the demand. There will always be more contracts, more reviews, more requests. Something had to change.”
A challenging client engagement became the catalyst for reflection. It pushed us to step back and consider how legal needed to work differently to keep pace with the business. The traditional approach, lengthy reviews, and cautious turnaround times was slowing down the business and reinforcing a perception of legal as a blocker.
Belinda didn’t want that. “I wanted legal to be a partner, not a brake on doing business,” she says. “But simply adding headcount wasn’t the answer. We had to find a different way.”
The leap to AI
At the same time, AI was becoming a louder conversation across Fusion5. Belinda was curious, but cautious. Could AI really help with the kind of complex, risk-sensitive work that lawyers do?
Still, the crossroads moment was clear. With executive backing and access to Fusion5’s internal AI specialists, Belinda made the call to try something new.
Enter Agent Claire. Short for Contracting Legal AI Review Engine.
How Claire works
Claire’s role is straightforward but transformative. She performs a first-pass review of contracts. Trained on Fusion5’s standard positions, risk tolerances, and preferred language, she scans a contract and flags what needs attention.
The results appear in a colour-coded report the team affectionately calls the “doughnut.”
- Wasabi green = all good.
- Custard yellow = needs a closer look.
- Jam red = high risk, pay attention.
What used to take hours can now take minutes. Early data shows Claire-assisted reviews are 50 - 70 percent faster than traditional ones.
“She’s not replacing our judgement,” says Belinda. “She’s doing the groundwork fast and helping us focus where it matters most.”
Impact on productivity and perception
For the legal team, the productivity gains are real. They are clearing more contracts without compromising quality, freeing time for higher-value work, and creating capacity without adding headcount.
But the bigger shift has been in how the function is perceived. “We’ve gone from being seen as conventional and cautious to being recognised as early adopters,” says Belinda. When other parts of the business saw legal embracing AI, it created lightbulb moments. People were asking, ‘If legal is using AI, why aren’t we?’
Human and digital teaming
Introducing Claire hasn’t created fear or resistance within the team. Instead, it has been liberating.
“There’s been no sense of replacement,” Belinda explains.
If anything, the team feels more valued. When you work alongside an agent, it highlights the things only people can do, nuance, judgement, context. Claire gets us part of the way, but the final thinking is still ours.”
Belinda now sees her role as leading a blended team of human and digital colleagues. Claire needs oversight, training, and feedback, just like a new hire. “She’s the perfect employee. Always available, doesn’t ask for a pay rise, and never underperforms.”
Lessons in leadership
Belinda’s experience hasn’t just been about productivity. It’s influenced how she leads.
When I joined, the legal function was conventional, very binary, very process driven. Introducing AI into that mix felt like a bold shift. I was brought up on highlighters, and sticky notes, so taking the leap into AI was as much of a shift for me as it was for the team"
But executive support made the difference. “I didn’t need to pretend to be an AI expert. I just needed to know the problem we were trying to solve and be open to new ideas. The rest came together.”
Her reflection is simple. Innovation and risk are not opposites.
You can move fast without being careless. Risk and innovation can run side by side.”
Looking ahead
Claire is still in her early stages, and the focus is on refining her capability. The immediate value has been reducing the time spent on initial reviews from hours to minutes, which gives the team faster triage and more space to focus on judgement.
Looking forward, Claire will not operate in isolation. The ambition is to connect her with other digital agents to create cross-business efficiencies and support end-to-end contract management. For Belinda, this points to a future where legal teams, and the profession more broadly, evolve into a blended model of human and digital talent.
Advice to other leaders
For other legal or compliance leaders wondering where to start, Belinda is clear: don’t wait.
You don’t need a grand AI strategy. Start with a real problem that’s slowing you down and see where an agent can help. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know your function, and you need partners who can help you move from idea to action. The biggest barrier is usually mindset, not technology.”
Belinda Muir | General Counsel, Fusion5
Exploring how AI can drive productivity in your legal team?
Fusion5’s Agent Claire shows what is possible. By reducing contract review times from hours to minutes, Claire demonstrates how AI agents can accelerate legal workflows, create space for higher-value work, and reshape the perception of legal as a business partner. As Customer Zero, Fusion5 is proving the value of human-digital collaboration inside our own organisation before taking it to clients. Discover how AI adoption can move beyond theory to practical results.
Q&A
What challenge was Fusion5’s legal team facing?
How is AI being used in the legal team?
Fusion5 introduced Agent Claire (Contracting Legal AI Review Engine) to perform first-pass contract reviews. Claire scans contracts against Fusion5’s standard positions and produces a colour-coded “doughnut” report that highlights risk levels and review priorities.
What results has Agent Claire delivered so far?
The biggest impact has been reducing the time spent on initial reviews from hours to minutes. This speeds up triage, allows the team to focus on judgement, and has created a more positive perception of legal across the business.
How have people responded to working with an AI agent?
There has been no resistance, only curiosity and relief. Team members see Claire as a digital colleague who handles repeatable tasks, freeing them to apply human judgement and context. The business has also taken notice, sparking lightbulb moments about how AI could be used in other functions.
What comes next for Agent Claire?
Claire is still in her early stages, and the focus is on refining her capability. The ambition is to connect her with other digital agents for cross-business efficiencies and end-to-end contract support. This reflects Fusion5’s vision of blended human and digital teams.
