Checkbox announced on September 16, 2026 the introduction of First Pass, a context-aware artificial intelligence agent designed to review contracts, invoices, and incoming legal requests before they consume lawyer time. The launch coincides with a rebrand positioning Checkbox as the AI front door for uncontrollable legal demand. More than 100 enterprise legal teams, including SAP, PepsiCo, and BILL, use the platform to manage high-volume work and reduce routine tasks.
Addressing the Burden of Routine Legal Work
Legal departments often struggle with contracts, invoices, and requests that arrive from across the business. Existing contract lifecycle management and e-billing platforms are built to manage work after it enters a system rather than resolve or deflect it earlier. As a result, lawyers frequently become the first pass for standard reviews and triage, leaving less time for strategic advice and risk management.
How First Pass Moves Intelligence Upstream
First Pass is designed to shift analysis to the point where requests originate. The context-aware AI can capture requests from tools such as Slack, Teams, email, Salesforce, Jira, and web forms. It files matters into existing workflows, avoids duplicate entries, and assigns work according to plain language guidelines defined by the legal team.
Contract and Invoice Review Automation
For contracts, workflows compare incoming agreements against a team playbook or approved template and return a risk score, summary, and review before a lawyer gets involved. For invoices, Checkbox checks LEDES invoices for mathematical and formatting errors and reviews line items against billing guidelines. Customers using the intake and triage layer have reduced NDAs requiring legal review by up to 95 percent.
Executive Perspective
Evan Wong, CEO and co-founder of Checkbox, said the company imagined First Pass around a simple question about how much routine work AI could remove from a legal team's plate. He noted that legal teams should not spend their time filtering work that does not require their judgment. Wong added that the launch is about putting legal back in command and giving teams more time to counsel the business.
Customer View from Hitachi
Jeannine Moran, Global Head of Legal Operations and AI Technology Solutions at Hitachi Digital, explained that Checkbox helped the organization build a single front door for legal work. She said the missing piece had been intelligence on the substance of work before it reaches legal. Moran added that First Pass closes that gap by giving business users upfront guidance and legal teams a pre-triaged request.
Brand and Market Momentum
The announcement also marks a new brand identity for Checkbox, centered on helping in-house counsel stay in command of growing demand. The company structures how legal work enters, moves through, and gets resolved across the business. Hitachi, in collaboration with Checkbox, recently won the Best Legal Transformation Project award at the Running Legal Like a Business conference.
Availability and Outlook
First Pass is available today through early access, with additional capabilities planned for a broader launch in the first quarter of 2027. The enhanced AI agent is part of Checkbox's wider no-code workflow automation offering for repeatable processes such as NDAs, DPAs, and contract approvals. Organizations can learn more at checkbox.ai.
Checkbox's announcement reflects a broader shift toward applying AI before legal work escalates, rather than simply automating tasks after intake. By combining context-aware review with structured workflows, the company aims to give legal teams greater control over demand and more capacity for high-value advisory work. As enterprise legal departments face rising volumes, tools like First Pass may help redefine how routine matters are handled across the business.