Intapp launches Celeste AI for compliance and timekeeping

Intapp has launched re-architected Compliance and Time software built around its Intapp Celeste AI system. The products are aimed at law firms and other professional services firms in regulated sectors.

The new offerings, called Compliance with Celeste and Time with Celeste, are available through a new entitlement for firms already using Intapp software for business acceptance, conflicts, terms, time and billing.

The updated products bring AI-driven workflows to processes including client intake, conflicts checking, outside counsel guideline review, time entry and revenue governance. The software uses a firm's own data and rules to handle routine tasks, while leaving staff to make decisions that require judgement.

The release reflects a broader shift in how software suppliers to legal and other advisory firms are positioning AI tools. Rather than focusing on drafting or research alone, vendors are increasingly targeting operational areas such as compliance, onboarding, billing and profitability analysis.

Compliance focus

In intake and risk processes, Celeste can fill in request forms using information from emails, identify missing data before submission, and build search strategies for conflicts and related checks. It can also map corporate structures, run searches and sort results for expert review.

The software can read outside counsel guidelines, match them to the relevant client, extract key terms and store the attributes important for compliance work. Users can also ask questions or start playbooks from prompts inside Intapp products or within Outlook.

That focus addresses a pressure point for larger firms, especially those expanding through mergers, acquisitions and partner hiring. As firms take on more matters, new clients and more complex engagements, risk teams face rising volumes of forms, searches and obligation checks.

Intapp argued that this can stretch specialist teams whose expertise is scarce and takes time to develop. Firms can then face a trade-off between moving new business through intake quickly and maintaining tight risk controls.

Time and revenue

On the timekeeping side, Celeste can draft billable time entries from work activity it already captures and fill in missing details. It can also write or rewrite time-entry narratives so they align with outside counsel guidelines and a firm's own style requirements.

The software is also designed to flag block-billing issues before bills are submitted. According to Intapp, Celeste can identify entries that break billing rules and help users split them or rewrite the narrative.

Another element of the launch is analytics linked to financial performance. Intapp said the system combines work activity, billing rules and financial data to give firms more detail on matter economics, realisation, utilisation and the effect of AI tools on work patterns.

This is tied to growing scrutiny of the billable hour as generative AI changes how quickly lawyers and other professionals can complete tasks. Firms are under pressure to show that fees reflect efficiency gains while preserving revenue and understanding the economics of new pricing models.

Product shift

Intapp described the launch as part of its move to an agent-first platform. Its Intake, Conflicts, Terms and Time products are no longer designed only to support human-led work, but also to let Celeste carry out parts of that work inside regulated processes.

According to the company, the common foundation for these products includes structured data, workflow logic, systems of record, context and compliance guardrails. It refers to this model as "Firm AI", meaning AI applied to the business operations of a professional firm rather than only to individual tasks or work product.

Thad Jampol, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Intapp, commented on the shift in product design.

"Intapp is now agent-first. We've re-architected our Compliance and Time solutions with Celeste and agentic workflows at their core, so the agents, the data they run on, and the compliance guardrails all come from one place. Pulling that together is the hard part, and it's the part no one else has done. That's what makes Compliance with Celeste and Time with Celeste real for firms - the agents do meaningful work inside regulated processes, on each firm's own data and under its own rules," Jampol said.

One customer highlighted the potential effect on intake and conflicts work in a law firm setting.

"There is really no true beginning or end to a workday in a law firm. Knowing that Celeste is there all the time is key. We believe that Celeste can have a very positive impact on our intake and conflicts process. Celeste's cutting-edge AI capabilities will help us responsibly take on matters and evaluate conflicts faster than ever before. At BakerHostetler, we have experienced tremendous lateral growth in recent years and, as a result, have onboarded a significant number of important new clients and complex engagements. We believe that Celeste will help us operate more efficiently as we continue to grow," said Katherine Lowry, Chief Information Officer and Head of IncuBaker, BakerHostetler.