How do you connect legal AI to SharePoint and a CLM?

Prepare the scope

Select one library, agreement type or team. Validate rights, versions, statuses and available metadata before expanding the corpus.

Minimum flow

Indexing reads authorised content and preserves provenance. Answers link back to source documents. Decisions and corrections are then synchronised according to API capabilities and the selected architecture.

• authentication and permissions;
• incremental synchronisation;
• traceability of passages used;
• deletion and permission-change handling.

Avoid a second repository

Document ownership should remain clear. The AI layer adds retrieval, comparison and decision support without creating an unmaintainable copy.

Build a permission matrix before any connector

Document who may discover a matter, read its content, view a summary, inspect a precedent and record a new decision. These capabilities are not equivalent. The index must never broaden a right from the source system, including through an answer that indirectly reveals a document exists.

Cover service accounts, application permissions and revocation as well. Least privilege should be verifiable in the architecture, not only stated in policy.

Versions, deletions and conflicts

Reliable synchronisation handles creation, modification, deletion, movement and permission changes. It preserves a stable source identifier and exposes the last synchronisation time. When a conflict occurs, the agreed system of record should prevail or trigger explicit review.

Before production, test revoked access, deletion, restoration, a superseded version and a temporary API failure. Measure how long each change takes to disappear from or appear in retrieval and answers.

• pilot scope and document owner;
• identity model and access matrix;
• synchronisation and conflict-resolution rules;
• logging, alerts and recovery procedure;
• criteria for expanding beyond the pilot.