AT&T taps OpenAI to power its in-house legal team

AT&T is bringing OpenAI into the legal department. The telecom company announced a partnership with the AI developer, reported on October 8, 2026, to rework how its lawyers handle legal work using AI tools such as chatbots and agents. The goal is to rely less on outside law firms. The deal builds on LegalEdge, the dedicated in-house law firm AT&T launched in January 2026. The partnership adds AI to a team that was already set up to pull work away from external counsel. What AT&T is actually building LegalEdge launched with approximately 38 legal professionals. Before that, AT&T tested the idea with a smaller pilot team of 24-30 people. The group works as an internal practice group. It collaborates with outside counsel rather than replacing them outright, while deploying AI tools across its work. The OpenAI partnership targets a specific problem: institutional memory. AT&T has more than a century of legal knowledge, and the plan is to make that history easier to search and use. The company says the integration should streamline routine legal work. AT&T has already moved in this direction. Throughout 2026, the company has shifted thousands of hours of traditio...