The problem
Buyers and sellers email asking where their move has got to, and each reply is written from scratch between other jobs. If a conveyancer sends 12 progress emails a day and each takes 5 minutes, that's 60 minutes a day, about 20 hours over 20 working days.
What the AI does
You type the facts of an update without names or addresses (for example: searches back, waiting for the seller's replies to enquiries, exchange target moved) into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask for a short, calm, plain-English email using a placeholder for the client's name. You then check it against the file, add the name and any detail, and send it from your case system. The assistant never sees the client's identity, and it never says what a clause means or what the client should do about it; that advice stays with the fee earner.
A worked example
A conveyancer at a four-person firm in Reading sends about 12 progress emails a day. She uses a saved set of instructions in her chosen assistant to write each from two or three facts with no identifying details, checks it against the file and sends it.
Before
5 minutes to write each update email: 240 emails a month take 20 hours
After
About 2 minutes to type the facts and check each draft: 8 hours a month
What it's worth
About 12 hours a month saved (3 minutes x 240 emails = 720 minutes), worth around £540 if caseworker time is worth £45 an hour. Plans run from free to about £20 a month for one person.
How to set it up
- Write a standing instruction: plain English, calm, no legal advice, no dates or promises unless you supply them, and use [CLIENT] as the name.
- Keep a short list of the update types you send most (searches back, enquiries outstanding, mortgage offer received, exchange date set).
- Type facts without names, addresses, prices or title numbers. Put the draft into your case system and add those details there.
- Check each draft against the file, especially dates and what is outstanding, before you send it.
- Have your COLP approve the instruction and the rule that no client details go into the assistant.
What goes wrong
- An assistant can invent a date or reassure a client about something not yet agreed. Read every line; the update is your firm's statement to the client.
- Consumer plans are not suitable for identifiable client data. Use placeholders, and if you want client names in the tool, look at a business plan and get your COLP and data protection lead to approve it first.
- Do not let drafts drift into advice on the contract or title. Anything beyond a status update is for the fee earner to write.
- Free plans have usage limits, so you may be cut off mid-morning on a busy day.