What challenges did Microsoft UK CELA face before AI implementation?

High manual workload for regulatory tracking across jurisdictions. Legal teams require consistent, reliable advice aligned to fast-changing policy. Traditional review methods are slow and not scalable for global enterprise. Internal adoption of new AI technology needs trust and tailored workflows.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Accelerated review and advice delivery for global regulatory changes. Reduced manual legal workload, freeing up talent for value-added tasks. Greater efficiency and trust in legal compliance operations. Adoption of AI expands productivity and trust in legal workflows.

Source

MicrosoftLive sourceEvidence: Low35/100

Azure OpenAI Transforms Legal Compliance Automation at Microsoft UK

Use case typeCompliance automationUpdated Jun 13, 2026

The UK Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) team at Microsoft, in partnership with EY Law, implemented an Azure OpenAI-based solution to automate and accelerate regulatory compliance. Faced with the challenge of manually tracking and interpreting fast-changing regulations across many jurisdictions, the CELA team needed a system that could deliver trusted, explainable legal outputs. By deploying semantic AI on Azure OpenAI, regulations are processed and aligned with Microsoft policy, supporting 250+ business use cases. The project shows substantial improvements in legal review speed, consistency, and adoption of advanced AI among legal professionals, with EY Law contributing transformation expertise. The solution enhances internal governance and helps shape legal AI best practices for large, regulated enterprises.

Organization: Microsoft UK CELA
Industry: Legal
Location: United Kingdom
Published: May 2024

Reported outcomes

Strategic outcomes

Risk & complianceAutomated regulatory compliance reviewsSpeed & agilityAccelerated legal review and adviceScale & capacitySupported global compliance at scaleEcosystem & partnershipsValidated workflows for many use cases

Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks

Customer: Microsoft UK CELA
Provider: Microsoft
Maturity: Unknown
Linked source: EY Insights UK

No explicit deployment-stage evidence found.

Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity evidence evaluated

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 2 of 2

1regulatory compliance automation
2semantic legal review

High manual workload for regulatory tracking across jurisdictions.
Legal teams require consistent, reliable advice aligned to fast-changing policy.
Traditional review methods are slow and not scalable for global enterprise.
Internal adoption of new AI technology needs trust and tailored workflows.

Azure OpenAI Service with semantic AI processes and interprets vast regulatory datasets.
Automated assessments link regulations to internal policies, supporting legal review and advice.
Partnered with EY Law for design, adoption, and validation of workflow for 250+ use cases.
Ensured explainability and trusted outputs tailored for legal teams.

Technologies

Azure OpenAI

Accelerated review and advice delivery for global regulatory changes.
Reduced manual legal workload, freeing up talent for value-added tasks.
Greater efficiency and trust in legal compliance operations.
Adoption of AI expands productivity and trust in legal workflows.

Architecture

Azure OpenAI Service with semantic AI capability integrates with CELA’s regulatory data; process automates alignment and assessment to Microsoft’s policy stack. Compliance reviews are accelerated and results delivered through tailored legal workflows, with expert oversight from EY Law.

Sources & evidence1

Evidence: Low35/100Evidence strength