Hunton Retail Law Resource

Artificial Intelligence is being rapidly becoming a normal part of individuals’ professional and personal lives. In the legal industry, generative AI (“GenAI”) is being frequently discussed, with countless articles discussing its impacts, benefits, and implementation.[1] But what are the practical implications and uses of GenAI in retail leasing?

GenAI has evolved from casual chatbots into sophisticated tools capable of automating a wide variety of processes. As these tools become more prevalent in everyday life, are they also being relied on for legal work? Can these tools replace the need for an attorney? The short answer is no.

These tools are great resources to incorporate into legal practice. According to the American Bar Association, legal AI adoption has more than doubled year over year, “signaling a rapid shift from experimentation to embedded use in daily law firm workflows.”[2] The incorporation of GenAI can increase efficiency, streamline repetitive tasks, and serve as a trained reference tool for client preferences and institutional knowledge.

In practice, GenAI is used across various tasks, from preparing initial drafts of lease agreements, to composing emails, to summarizing agreements and identifying key provisions. These tools are particularly advantageous for programmatic leasing where attorneys often negotiate a high volume of leases for a retail clients across multiple locations. In such programs, negotiation strategies and points of contention between Landlords and Tenants tend to follow similar patterns. By organizing prior lease negotiations, forms, playbooks, and client guidance within AI platforms, legal teams can create repositories of information which serve as data for future negotiations. Over time, these tools become well versed in client strategies, common legal issues, and lease negotiation preferences. As a result, the time needed to produce a revised lease agreement can be considerably reduced.

However, GenAI remains most effective when paired with attorney judgment. GenAI tools are just that – tools. While they are great at learning data and applying it, they cannot evaluate nuance, business priorities, and negotiation dynamics.

As lease negotiations become more complicated, attorneys play a critical role in assessing reasonable compromises, evaluating risk, and determining the path of least resistance in accomplishing a mutual goal – execution. AI tools cannot determine what a business team is willing to compromise on, how certain provisions or “deal breakers” can be modified to fit a certain location, or where negotiation capital should be prioritized. These decisions require legal judgement, commercial awareness, and an understanding of the broader business relationships.

The future of GenAI in programmatic leasing is promising. As these technologies continue to evolve, they will become increasingly valuable in increasing efficiency, document review, streamlining tasks, and negotiation workflows. Nevertheless, the most effective model is not one in which GenAI replaces attorneys, but rather, one in which these tools enhance their ability to deliver faster, more consistent, and more strategic legal services.

[1] How Legal Drafting AI Is Changing the Way Lawyers Work.” “AI Legal Writing: How Lawyers Can Work Faster Without Sacrificing Accuracy” OpenAI just launched Astra for Law – “the latest and most powerful model… for professional legal work”

[2] AI for Law Firms: What the 8am Legal Industry Report Tells Us About AI Use, American Bar Association, April 1, 2026