Why Specialist AI Agents Beat General Chatbots for Legal Work
Every few weeks, someone asks why we’re building specialist agents when ChatGPT can “do everything.”
Fair question. Wrong premise.
The Problem with General Tools
ChatGPT is remarkable. But ask it to build a litigation timeline from 50 pages of discovery, and you’ll spend more time correcting its output than if you’d done it manually.
Not because the underlying model is bad. Because the task requires domain expertise, consistent structure, and reliable output. A general chatbot optimizes for plausible-sounding responses. Legal work requires precision.
What Makes an Agent Specialized
A specialist agent has three things a chatbot doesn’t:
Domain structure. It knows what a litigation timeline looks like. What fields matter. How events relate to each other. What formats lawyers actually use.
Consistent output. Same input, same structure. Every time. You can rely on it the way you’d rely on a trained paralegal.
Integration potential. It connects to your existing tools. Exports to your preferred format. Fits into your workflow instead of requiring a new one.
The Thea Example
Our litigation timeline agent, Thea, doesn’t just “read documents and find dates.” It:
- Extracts events with consistent categorization
- Identifies relationships between parties and actions
- Handles ambiguous dates (e.g., “early March 2023”)
- Outputs in formats that work with courtroom presentation tools
- Learns which events matter for your jurisdiction and case type
That’s not a prompt. That’s a tool.
When General Tools Work
We’re not anti-ChatGPT. It’s excellent for:
- Drafting initial client communications
- Brainstorming arguments
- Explaining complex legal concepts in plain language
- Research starting points
But when you need reliable, structured output for actual legal work? You need something purpose-built.
The Path Forward
The future isn’t choosing between general AI and specialized agents. It’s using both.
ChatGPT for exploration and drafting. Specialized agents for the tasks that require precision and consistency. Your judgment for everything that actually matters.
That’s the workflow we’re building toward at Mino. Tools that do one job extremely well, so you can focus on the parts that require a lawyer.