Choosing an AI legal advice tool starts with what you actually need: asking a quick legal question, reviewing a contract you are about to sign, or doing batch research for a law firm. The three jobs need different things. Buy the wrong tool and even the smoothest answer will not help.
Three jobs, three things to look for
| Job | Look at first | Examples | Not for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask a quick question | Can the answer be checked against the original text of the law? | General chat products such as Tongyi Qianwen, Doubao, and Kimi | People who need to sign something or go to court |
| Review a contract | Are risk points flagged with evidence, and can they be adjusted to your own rules? | Tongyi Farui, PowerLaw, Zhihe AI | People reviewing a single contract who do not want to pay |
| Do research | Are cases and statutes complete, and can citations be traced back to the source? | Zhihe AI, Deli Fasou | Ordinary users who look something up only occasionally |
One difference is easy to miss: some tools are strong at question and answer, others at processing whole documents. For a simple question, a good Q&A tool is enough. To review a contract dozens of pages long, you need a tool that can read the whole document and flag risks page by page; forcing a Q&A tool to do that job will not work.
Take the same material and run it first in the free tier or trial in two or three tools. Compare not who sounds most confident, but whose citations open and who flags the uncertain parts. Pricing tiers differ a lot; the current page of each product is what counts. Do not budget from old prices found online.
Check three things once you have an answer
- Do the cited statute and case really exist? Open the original text and check the name and clause number. 2. Does the conclusion state its conditions? Without conditions, treat it as incomplete. 3. Does it mix up "the general situation" with "your situation"? AI gives information for reference, not legal advice. Before signing, responding to a lawsuit, or in criminal matters or high-value disputes, have a licensed lawyer review the matter.
Who it is not for
People in the middle of litigation, people who have received a summons, or matters involving criminal liability or the division of large assets should not rely on an AI tool alone first. There is also a hard boundary: do not upload unredacted client materials, ID numbers, or full contracts into a tool you do not know well. Redact first, then ask. No matter how convenient a tool is, it is not worth trading privacy for it.
