Meet Antonia Aglialoro
Staff Product Designer at DISCO
Designer, builder, and human.
What Antonia does with AI: Designs and integrates AI-powered tools, like DISCO’s Cecilia Q&A, that helps legal teams understand the facts of their case and find evidence faster.
Why it matters: Her approach ensures that AI is applied in ways that genuinely solve problems and create value for users by prioritizing trust, transparency, and user control.
Q: As someone building AI tools, how do you think critically about integrating AI?
Antonia Aglialoro: When I first joined DISCO, I didn’t have extensive experience working directly with AI tools, so my initial goal was immersing myself in them and using them as much as possible. These days, it seems like every platform — whether it’s Instagram, Amazon, you name it — has some form of AI feature embedded.
I made a conscious effort to incorporate AI tools into my professional workflows as well as my personal life, thinking critically about how they function and the types of problems I was using them to solve. In some instances, the integration of AI tools felt purposeful and aligned with the task at hand. In other instances, AI features felt tacked on and superfluous to what I was trying to accomplish. Seeing the range of applications highlighted for me that the industry is still figuring out how to best apply AI and which use cases truly benefit from its capabilities.
When I design solutions that leverage AI, I approach it similarly to how I approach any other design problem. I start by understanding the user, their needs and pain points and evaluate the best approach for addressing those needs. My goal is to always prioritize the people we are designing for and align the solutions as best we can to support their needs. With generative AI (GenAI), we now have a new tool that we can use to approach these problems in new and innovative ways.
Related: Read more about user-centered design in AI at Humans Behind the AI: The Designer 🧑🎨
Q: When designing for a complex industry like legal, what are some unique challenges you face that might not be as prominent in other domains?
Aglialoro: One of the unique challenges when it comes to designing for the legal industry is the high-stakes nature of the work. There is a natural and understandable hesitancy for adopting new technologies as it introduces a certain level of risk. That said, there is also a curiosity and recognition that AI has the potential to transform legal workflows. Our role as providers and partners in legal tech is to bridge the gap between caution and curiosity by designing experiences that foster trust in AI technologies and demonstrate the potential it has to enhance legal workflows.
Learn more about building trust when using AI for legal at Humans Behind the AI: The AI Consultant 🧠
Q: How do you see GenAI changing the way the legal industry operates, and what role does trust play in this transition?
Aglialoro: Right now, I'm working on a project that gives our users more control over their interaction with GenAI within DISCO. Essentially, it’s allowing them to decide when and where they want to use a tool like Cecilia AI, or if they prefer to not use it at all. This might seem like a simple feature — but it’s about something much deeper: trust.
We’re in a unique moment where many people are encountering AI for the first time, and that’s an exciting opportunity for us. We have a chance to shape that first experience thoughtfully and intentionally. How do we guide users through this transition? What does that first interaction with AI look like? It’s crucial that we approach these experiences with the mindset of incrementally building trust every step of the way.
To learn more about the future of AI in the legal industry, check out: Humans Behind the AI: The Accidental Lawyer ⚖️
Q: What is your biggest hope and your biggest fear for the future of AI?
Aglialoro: I’m an optimist when it comes to AI, and my biggest hope is that it will allow us to be more creative. I believe AI can take over some of the more mundane, repetitive tasks, freeing up our time to focus on more creative problem-solving and work that engages us on a deeper level.
I’m always inspired by the innovative ways people are already using AI. Whether it's friends, colleagues, or people in various industries, I’m constantly hearing about new applications. Humans are inherently creative, and with a tool like AI, we’ll see even more inventive ways to use it. Ultimately, my hope is that AI will empower people to focus on work they find more fulfilling, challenging, and rewarding — moving beyond the routine to tackle more complex and stimulating tasks.
On the flip side, I can’t help but think about the environmental implications of GenAI. With all these advanced tools at our fingertips — where we can generate images, text, and more in seconds — it’s easy to forget the environmental cost of running these technologies. We need to think critically about the impact AI has on the planet and be responsible in how we use it. It’s something we don’t always connect to because the results are so immediate, but it’s crucial to be aware of the larger consequences.
Overall, I hope we can approach this next phase of AI development thoughtfully and critically. It’s exciting, but we also need to make sure we’re applying it in ways that truly solve problems and improve people’s lives. Among all the excitement and hype surrounding AI, it’s easy to lose sight of the long-term vision for how this technology can be used to benefit society in meaningful ways. That’s the balance I hope we can strike.
For further reading on the future of legal technology and how AI is shaping the landscape, click here.
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