ArentFox Schiff Retired Proprietary AI Chatbot
The law firm decommissioned its internal AFSChat tool after procuring Harvey and Copilot for its legal operations.
Updated on Oct. 8, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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ArentFox Schiff has officially shut down AFSChat, its proprietary generative artificial intelligence chatbot. The firm deactivated the tool in October 2026 after consolidating its AI stack around third-party solutions.
Why it matters
The move reflects a growing trend of professional service firms shifting from custom-built, internal AI experiments toward specialized industry platforms. This transition prioritizes integrated tools designed specifically for legal workflows over bespoke in-house software.
The firm moved to replace its bespoke AFSChat system with Harvey and Copilot. These platforms serve as the new standard for the firm, superseding the previous custom-developed generative artificial intelligence tool.
The players
ArentFox Schiff
A prominent law firm that provides legal counsel and has recently consolidated its internal AI software stack.
The details
AFSChat was a proprietary generative artificial intelligence chatbot used for internal operations at ArentFox Schiff. Generative artificial intelligence describes software systems that use large datasets to create new content, such as text, code, or images, based on user-provided prompts. The firm opted to decommission the software because the adoption of commercial tools like Harvey and Copilot rendered the internal AFSChat build redundant.
Timeline
October 2026: ArentFox Schiff finalized the shutdown of the AFSChat chatbot.
The Tech Race
The retirement of AFSChat aligns with the broader industry movement toward standardized AI suites for legal research and drafting. This shift away from custom-built chatbots emphasizes the competitive edge of purpose-built tools over generalist internal AI models.
Employees at the firm will now transition to using Harvey and Copilot for their daily legal tasks. The change serves to consolidate the internal tech stack and standardize the digital tools available to legal staff.
The takeaway
Firms are increasingly moving away from maintaining custom AI software that overlaps with the capabilities of emerging industry-standard platforms. Keep an eye on future firm-wide disclosures regarding the performance metrics of these newly adopted AI tools compared to their predecessors.
Further reading
Learn more about the evolving deployment of Artificial Intelligence across national professional service industries.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Law.
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