AT&T has partnered with OpenAI to explore how AI can improve the way its in-house legal team works.
As a flagship legal design partner, AT&T will work with OpenAI to develop and test AI-powered tools for everyday legal tasks, while ensuring lawyers remain responsible for key decisions.
The partnership builds on AT&T LegalEdge, an AI-focused initiative launched in January 2026.
The company revealed the programme has already handled nearly 100 matters in its first six months and aims to improve how legal knowledge is stored, shared and used across the company.
Under the plans, AI agents could answer common legal questions or gather information to help lawyers prepare advice.
However, the telecom giant said confidentiality, accountability and human oversight will remain central to the process.
AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, David McAtee: “AI gives legal departments an opportunity to do more than improve individual productivity. It gives us an opportunity to rethink how legal work moves through an organisation, how institutional knowledge is retained and how our lawyers focus their time.
“Together with OpenAI, we are building an AT&T Legal Department-wide capability designed to make our knowledge and expertise more accessible to every AT&T organisation we serve. AI can expand what we do and how quickly we do it. Legal judgment remains human.”
OpenAI GM Legal Industry, Jason Boehmig, added: “AI can help in-house legal teams play an even greater role in advancing the business, from evaluating new opportunities to helping teams make informed decisions and act on them.
“AT&T is helping lead the way by rethinking how its legal expertise and institutional knowledge can serve the entire company. Together, we’re exploring how AI can put that knowledge to work across the business, with lawyers’ judgment at the centre.”
AT&T SVP and Chief Compliance Officer, Bill Ryan, concluded: “Success will not be measured by how much technology we deploy.
“It will be measured by whether we improve quality, make knowledge more accessible, build reusable capabilities, and give our legal professionals more capacity for the work that requires experience and judgment. This partnership is about doing that responsibly, in real workflows and at enterprise scale.”
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