Ask iManage feature spotlight: From search results to real answers with agentic search

Search has always been at the heart of legal work. Yet for many professionals, finding what they need within their DMS is frequently a blocker that greatly limits their productivity. Keywords must be guessed. Filters refined. Results reviewed manually, one by one. Valuable time is lost before the real work even begins.

Ask iManage changes that equation. By integrating agentic, AI-powered search directly into iManage Work, it removes the search obstacle, empowering professionals to get answers, not just documents, faster. 

A welcome evolution to search that’s been a long time coming

Traditional search assumes users know exactly what they’re looking for and puts unnecessary cognitive load on the end user. Yet in reality, legal professionals and other knowledge workers are often starting with a question, not a file name. They need context, comparison, and confidence — fast. In many cases, for the busy professional, the traditional long list of results to manually review just won’t do. 

From 47 documents to one defensible answer in a minute or less

Traditional search does its job by returning documents. A well-crafted query might surface 47 relevant files, but the burden of reading, comparing, and interpreting them still falls on the user. What looks like success in search often translates into hours of manual analysis. 

Ask iManage takes a different approach. Instead of stopping at retrieval, it reasons across documents to deliver an answer. A single natural‑language question can produce a structured comparison, highlight differences, and surface risk, complete with citations back to the source material. What once took around two hours of focused effort can be reduced to about 60 seconds of agent-driven analysis. 

Built for real workflows, not theoretical ones

The ubiquitous adoption of AI tools throughout the industry has been instructive, though the lessons are not all immediately positive. One of the biggest takeaways from the adoption of AI has been that standalone tools often struggle to scale. When AI requires users to export documents, manage separate systems, or work outside governed environments, adoption stalls and risk increases. 
 
Ask iManage sidesteps this issue by being different by design. It works natively inside iManage Work, a platform that professionals already trust for their most sensitive content. There’s no need to select documents, build vector indexes, or manage additional infrastructure. Every query respects any existing permissions, ethical walls, and security policies automatically. 
 
For those regularly dealing with sensitive documents, the advantage is obvious: Professionals can ask questions earlier in their workflow — while searching, reviewing, or preparing advice — without changing tools or processes. AI becomes a natural part of how work gets done, not an extra step. 

This approach delivers an experience not replicable elsewhere: intelligent search and deep analysis without compromising security, governance, or usability.

Moving from questions to outcomes 

The real power of Ask iManage lies in what it enables day to day: 

• Comparing how a clause is handled across past agreements
• Identifying risk patterns across large sets of documents
• Surfacing key facts or provisions without reading dozens of files
• Updating precedent language with confidence 

What once took hours of manual effort can now be accomplished in seconds, with answers grounded in relevant documents. Over time, these small gains compound, freeing professionals to focus on higher-value thinking rather than repetitive search and review. 

What this means for professionals

For end users, Ask iManage delivers faster answers they can trust. For IT and knowledge leaders, it provides a secure, scalable way to introduce AI without adding complexity. And for firms as a whole, it unlocks the full value of collective knowledge that already exists, but which has, until now, been too hard to access. 

To learn more about how Ask iManage is helping firms like yours rapidly change the way their professionals’ access and use their accumulated knowledge, reach out to schedule a personalized demo today.