If you’ve ever run a NetDocuments search and then spent 20 minutes opening documents one by one, trying to find a specific answer, you know the frustration. Search returns files. It doesn’t answer questions.
NetDocuments Smart Answers does. It’s a new capability in the Legal AI Assistant that automatically searches your cabinet, reads the relevant documents, and provides you with a plain-language answer with citations back to the source. No pre-loading documents. No manual review stack. Just ask.
Here’s what Smart Answers is, how it works, what it’s best suited for, and how to prompt it well.
What Is Smart Answers?
Smart Answers is a tool within the ndMAX Legal AI Assistant. It works differently from both standard NetDocuments search and the document analysis mode most users already know from the AI Assistant.
Standard search returns a list of files based on keywords and metadata. The traditional AI Assistant lets you load specific documents and ask questions about them. Smart Answers combines both steps into one: describe what you’re looking for in plain language, and it searches the cabinet, finds the relevant documents, reads them, synthesizes the information, and delivers a cited response.
The key distinction: Search when you know which file you need. Use Smart Answers when you need insight synthesized across documents.
How It Works
When you ask Smart Answers a question in the Legal AI Assistant, the process runs in five steps:
- You open the Legal AI Assistant with the “Search NetDocuments” toggle enabled (it’s on by default) and type your question.
- Smart Answers searches the cabinet for documents matching the criteria in your question, using both full text and metadata.
- The AI agent reads and consults the relevant documents found.
- It combines the information into a clear, synthesized response.
- The output includes inline citations showing exactly which documents contributed to the answer.
One practical note: Smart Answers can search and read any document in the cabinet that you have permission to view. There’s no additional permission layer to configure. It also respects any AI Assistant Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules already in place — documents protected by DLP are completely invisible to Smart Answers.
Current limitation worth knowing: Smart Answers can search by full text and metadata, but cannot yet filter by date ranges or specific workspaces. Those capabilities are planned for a future release.
Three Core Use Cases
The NetDocuments documentation breaks Smart Answers use into three practical scenarios:
- Finding documents that mention a specific name, term, or phrase
If you need to quickly locate documents that reference a client, a policy, a product, or specific contract language, Smart Answers can automatically search and summarize across those documents.
Example prompt: Locate documents that reference a remote work policy and summarize how that policy is described across those documents.
- Drafting based on information spread across multiple documents
When you need to pull details from several documents to draft something new, Smart Answers first gathers the relevant information, then helps you build from it.
Example prompt: Find multiple examples of how sports endorsement agreements handle fees for late payments. Then give me a detailed bullet-point playbook for handling that situation based on those examples.
- Getting up to speed on a matter or client quickly
Enter a phrase or client name, and Smart Answers finds related documents and produces a summary — useful when a new attorney is joining a matter, or you need a fast brief before a call.
Example prompt: Identify documents that mention the Riverton Expansion Project and provide a detailed summary of the key updates across those documents.
Prompting Smart Answers Well
The quality of what Smart Answers returns is directly tied to the quality of the prompt. Vague prompts produce vague results. Specific prompts with conditions, context, and a defined output format produce precise answers.
The NetDocuments ACE method is a useful framework: Action (what to do), Context (background and constraints), Expectation (what format or output you want).
The clearest way to illustrate this is the contrast between weak and strong prompts:
Avoid → Instead Ask
- Search and summarize all merger agreements → Provide the key terms of three merger agreements governed by Texas law where one party is a bank
- Find all documents with “FreshMart” in the name → Find all motions with “FreshMart” in the name where they are the plaintiff and are filing for summary judgment
- Make a list of all leases → Generate a list of commercial real estate leases in Chicago, Illinois, with a provision for subleasing without prior approval
- Find all merger agreements for fintech acquisitions → Identify merger agreements that provide relevant precedent for a fintech acquisition involving a Nevada-based target
- What kind of experience should I expect in front of Judge Mauskopf? → Summarize five orders issued by Judge Mauskopf in no more than 10 bullet points and identify any consistent ruling patterns
The pattern is consistent: the stronger prompt names the document type, specifies the conditions (jurisdiction, party, provision type), and defines the output format. Smart Answers can’t refine your question for you — that’s your job upfront.
Also worth knowing: if a prompt isn’t returning useful results, you can ask the Legal AI Assistant to help you improve or rewrite the prompt. It’s a legitimate part of the workflow.
Smart Answers and Security
A common question from firms we work with: Does Smart Answers create any new exposure?
The short answer is no. Smart Answers operates entirely within your existing NetDocuments permissions. It can only read documents the user already has access to. Ethical walls and access controls apply the same way they do everywhere else in the platform. No document text, prompts, or AI responses are retained by NetDocuments or used to train models.
DLP rule compliance is also built in. If a document is protected by a DLP rule, Smart Answers cannot see it. This is a paid add-on, but for firms that have it, it applies automatically.
Who Can Use Smart Answers?
Smart Answers is available to ndMAX Enterprise customers and is currently in public preview. It must be enabled by NetDocuments upon request — it’s not automatically on for all customers, and some may be placed on a waitlist depending on rollout timing.
Once enabled for a cabinet, all users with Legal AI Assistant access in that cabinet can use Smart Answers. There’s no per-user toggle to configure.
If your firm has ndMAX Enterprise and you’re not sure whether Smart Answers has been enabled, that’s worth a quick check with your NetDocuments contact — or with us.
Our Perspective
We’ve been implementing NetDocuments for law firms since 2010. The biggest barrier we see to getting value out of a document management system isn’t storage or organization — it’s retrieval. Attorneys know there’s useful precedent somewhere in the system, but the friction of finding it means they often don’t bother.
Smart Answers reduces that friction materially. The ability to ask a focused question and get a cited answer from your own work product — rather than spending 30 minutes searching and opening files — is a genuine workflow change, not just a feature update.
The catch is that it rewards firms whose documents are well-organized and whose attorneys are willing to learn to prompt clearly. Both of those are worth investing in.
If you’d like to talk through how Smart Answers fits your firm’s setup or training needs, schedule a consultation at go.oncehub.com/optconsult.