OpenAI is turning to a young legal-tech startup to help law firms bring artificial intelligence into everyday legal work, signaling a deeper push into the professional services market.
The AI company has selected London-based Telon to help legal teams deploy and integrate AI tools into their workflows more efficiently across firms today.
Telon uses “legal engineers,” largely former lawyers, to configure AI models, develop prompts and train legal professionals to use the technology. The startup has grown to about 30 employees and is backed by the LegalTech Fund.
The partnership comes as OpenAI competes to expand beyond general-purpose AI and capture demand from industries where specialized expertise is critical.
For UK and European legal-tech founders, the deal builds growing opportunities to build businesses around AI implementation, training and workflow integration. It also signals that law firms could use AI for research, drafting, contract analysis and other routine legal tasks.
