AI has been taken seriously as a potentially revolutionary technological change in the legal world for a number of years now. Has it had a meaningful impact in how your legal team works in this time?

AI has had a meaningful and practical impact on how our legal team at idealista operates, particularly in terms of efficiency, scalability, and the quality of our delivery. Our journey started with the adoption of generative AI tools under a secure governance framework to help lawyers work faster and more consistently. These tools have proven valuable to solve day-to day tasks ranging from email drafting, improving the quality and clarity of legal wording, and facilitating translations — an important capability given that we operate across multiple jurisdictions and languages.

We continued our road to more advanced AI solutions, based on the strong technological foundation that we had already put in place. Tools such as our ticketing system and internal contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform helped us identify bottlenecks, structured workflows and centralised data which were the foundation of our AI deployment.

Building on this, we have implemented several AI-driven solutions. For example, an AI-powered contract review agent supports our lawyers by generating risk assessment reports and flagging clauses that deviate from our internal playbook, significantly reducing review time while improving consistency. We also use an entity management tool to streamline corporate governance across all jurisdictions. In addition, we have deployed self-service AI agents for business teams — covering areas such as marketing and regulated operations — to handle low-risk, repetitive queries before escalating to legal. More recently, we have been experimenting with tools like Claude Code to automate processes in the legal team and generate training contents for internal use.

Overall, these initiatives have reduced administrative burden, allowing the legal team to focus on higher-value, strategic work while improving both speed and quality of our service to our business stakeholders.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

As an in-house team with strong expertise in digital businesses, we are usually able to manage a wide range of day-to-day legal matters internally, so our decision to engage external legal counsel versus handling matters in-house is primarily guided by the level of specialization required, the degree of legal uncertainty, and the strategic importance of the issue. However, we deliberately turn to external counsel in situations where highly specialized knowledge is needed — particularly in the digital field and in matters related to online platforms, emerging regulation, and evolving legal frameworks.

At idealista we especially value external advisors for “grey areas” where existing knowledge or precedents do not provide a clear answer. In these cases, we seek expert input not only to interpret the applicable regulations but also to explore innovative and pragmatic solutions. Additionally, we engage external counsel when we have identified potential legal risks and want a second opinion to validate our approach or challenge our assumptions. This is particularly relevant in complex or high-impact matters, where mitigating or eliminating risk must be carefully balanced with preserving business initiatives and maintaining agility.

Another key driver for us is finding external support in a multi-jurisdictional context. When operating across multiple markets, local expertise is essential to navigate regulatory nuances. We rely in external counsel to provide this local insight and help us ensure a uniform criterion for each business line in different jurisdictions.

Additionally, we evaluate external legal providers based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria. Technical expertise is fundamental, but equally important is their ability to deliver practical, business-oriented advice tailored to digital environments. Responsiveness, clarity of communication, and the ability to operate at the pace of a technology-driven company are critical.

Finally, as most in-house teams appreciate, cost-efficiency and transparency in billing are essential drivers when selecting external support. Over time, we have continued working with firms that demonstrate a strong understanding of our business and act as true idealista partners.