iManage unveils AI context fabric for governed knowledge
Fri, 22nd May 2026 (Today)
iManage has unveiled the next evolution of its platform, centred on a new context fabric designed to organise institutional knowledge for AI use.
The revised platform is intended to turn documents, relationships and work activity across an organisation into a governed knowledge base for AI systems and agents. It is aimed at legal, financial services and other professional services groups moving from testing AI tools to deploying them more widely in day-to-day work.
The changes mark the first phase of a broader platform overhaul. Initial updates include changes to the user interface and workflows, alongside new controls and monitoring tools tied to AI use.
Governance and security policies are built into the platform to ensure AI tools can access only material users are already authorised to see. The context fabric can also reason over content, relationships and real-time activity across an organisation.
That focus reflects a wider shift among large organisations seeking to make internal knowledge usable by AI systems without weakening compliance rules or client confidentiality. For firms in regulated sectors, the issue is often less about choosing a model than about controlling how data is accessed and used.
iManage said it had added 90 new customer logos this year and expanded its cloud platform to 78% of its global customer base. Its products are now used by 83% of the Top Global 100 firms, 40% of the Fortune 100 and 79% of the Am Law 100.
Neil Araujo, Chief Executive of iManage, linked the latest platform changes to that shift in customer demand. "Knowledge work is evolving faster than ever, and the value of AI depends on safely activating the knowledge, context, and expertise organisations already have," he said.
"iManage is helping organisations move from systems that simply store knowledge to a secure, governed foundation that actively surfaces it, connects it, and makes it usable for AI - contextually, responsibly, and at scale," Araujo said.
AI controls
Among the main additions is a new set of AI-specific controls governing how AI is applied across clients and matters. Security Policy Manager will be expanded to support more granular restrictions at client and matter level, allowing firms to apply tighter rules as AI becomes more embedded in routine work.
Threat Manager, another part of the platform, will now show AI agent activity in user activity reporting. This will give security teams more visibility into what AI agents are accessing, moving and modifying within the system.
The business is also continuing work on its Model Context Protocol Server, or MCP Server, designed to connect AI tools and agents to knowledge stored in iManage under existing permissions. This means external AI systems can query matter histories, documents and other internal content without requiring bulk exports or bespoke integrations.
Anthropic link
Alongside the platform update, iManage is extending its AI ecosystem through availability in Anthropic's partner ecosystem and Claude store. Through the MCP Server, Claude can access governed iManage knowledge in what the company described as a permission-bound and auditable way.
The arrangement is intended to let customers use Anthropic's AI models with content already held in iManage while keeping access controls in place. It also signals a strategy of letting customers connect several AI tools to the same managed knowledge base rather than committing to a single provider.
Search and records
Other product changes are aimed at making older and dispersed content easier to retrieve. Insight+ Multi-Region Search is intended to give global organisations a single search experience across different regions, allowing users to find documents, emails and matter-related material regardless of where the data is stored.
iManage has also introduced native optical character recognition so scanned documents and image-based PDFs can be searched and read by AI systems within the platform. For firms with large archives of scanned files, that could make older records more useful in search and contract review tools.
In records management, Disposition Manager now allows records managers to intervene when workflows run into issues such as unavailable approvers or checked-out documents. Records Manager also has faster reporting and export functions, while new eSynch services are intended to improve performance and resiliency when synchronising content with iManage Cloud.
Client work
For day-to-day collaboration, the company is adding Collaboration Links, allowing users to share documents with clients and outside parties through a link while keeping the exchange inside the iManage platform. External recipients can view and edit documents without needing an iManage account, with Microsoft 365 co-authoring included.
The update highlights the balancing act facing software providers serving law firms and other advisory businesses. Clients want easier collaboration and more automation, but they also need to preserve audit trails, client restrictions and internal ethical walls.
With more than one million professionals at 4,000 organisations using its software, iManage is positioning its platform around that need for controlled access to internal knowledge as AI systems become more involved in drafting, review and research tasks.