For many years, Klinik Guaman Fakulti Syariah & Undang-Undang USIM (KGFSU) has been a venue for interaction with the legal community. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the legal aid clinic has extended its offerings beyond in-person consultations to include civil legal and Syariah e-consultations for the general public. Even after the pandemic, this digital transformation is still occurring to meet the growing need for reliable, easily accessible, and cost-free legal advice. The clinic is now investigating artificial intelligence as a novel approach to outreach and innovation, particularly in providing early-stage solutions for resolving legal concerns, in order to further strengthen its role in fostering legal literacy and community empowerment.
The creation of the Intelligent Legal Assistant (ILA), a digital tool that provides trustworthy and syariah & civil compliant legal information in response to commonly asked legal questions, is one of the most recent initiatives in this direction. While ILA helps users understand basic legal issues, it does not substitute the expertise of a legal practitioner. Public members are still encouraged to use e-consultation to speak with qualified legal professionals if they need formal legal advice, legal opinions, or additional help.
The goal of the ILA chatbot is to transform how the general public perceives and obtains legal services. It is envisioned as a digital frontliner that provides structured answers to fundamental legal questions. The pilot specifically addresses Islamic Family Law, which continues to be the most often consulted topic at Klinik Guaman FSU. Many people in the community are still looking for quick fixes for family and personal issues like divorce, child custody, maintenance, and marital property. Furthermore, the chatbot aims to address commonly asked civil law questions about employment, contracts, tenancy disputes, and debt recovery. The platform helps users understand their rights and responsibilities before seeking legal advice from professionals by providing early legal clarity in both syariah and civil law areas. To ensure accuracy and accountability, all responses are in line with Malaysian legislation, Enactments, case law, which includes primary and secondary sources of law in Malaysia.
A Revolutionary Transition to AI-Powered Legal Access from Traditional E-Consultation
Klinik Guaman’s e-consultation process used to be simple whereby clients were scheduled for online consultation sessions with legal professionals. During these planned sessions, all legal advice and clarifications were given directly. This approach was helpful, but not efficient. It took time to sort through cases, delayed responses, and made it harder to identify patterns in public legal concerns.
Although still in its early phase, the introduction of the ILA chatbot marks an early step towards improving how Klinik Guaman engages with the community. It sets the foundation for future enhancements in areas such as:
-Accessible anytime: ILA has the potential to provide round-the-clock access, allowing the public to ask legal questions without needing to schedule an appointment, offering flexibility beyond regular consultation hours.
-Entry point for legal concerns: The chatbot creates a space for users to explore and better understand their concerns before taking formal legal steps. This is especially useful for sensitive matters that people may hesitate to raise in direct consultation.
-Support where it’s needed most: As public awareness of legal rights grows, especially among women in matters of Islamic Family Law, ILA can serve as a practical channel for early understanding, particularly for those who face challenges accessing formal legal institutions.
-Data-Informed legal literacy: While still limited in scope, ILA can gradually help Klinik Guaman collect and analyse recurring questions from the public, supporting the creation of more targeted legal education content in the future.
-Complementary, not a Replacement: ILA is not meant to replace professional legal services. Instead, it offers general, verified legal information as an initial point of reference to help guide users in the right direction. However, Klinik Guaman strongly encourages users to proceed with formal consultations because every case is unique and often requires a personalised approach.
What users type into the chatbot usually reflects their own limited understanding of the issue. During e-consultation, legal practitioners can interpret the problem more accurately, ask follow-up questions, and provide tailored advice based on the specific facts and legal context. This often leads to clearer solutions and better outcomes. Meeting with a lawyer helps users gain direction, clarity, and confidence in making the next legal decision.
This initiative is part of USIM’s AI Pilot Project for Klinik Guaman FSU, which is currently in the prototype phase. The project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Syariah and Law (FSU) and the System Development and Engineering Centre (SDEC), supported by a special grant from the Legal Affairs Division (Bahagian Hal Ehwal Undang-Undang, BHEUU) under the Prime Minister’s Department. It is led by Dr. Norsuhaida binti Che Musa, a senior lecturer at FSU and the current Coordinator of Klinik Guaman FSU.
This initiative fits into USIM’s broader goal of advancing digital solutions with an Islamic foundation. The pilot contributes to the university’s long-term objective of becoming a leader in faith-driven legal technology while investigating frameworks for responsible Syariah-based AI. Although there is currently no official institution associated with the project, its development establishes the foundation for future research and academic platforms that combine digital tools with the integrity of Islamic jurisprudence. It also embodies the spirit of maqasid al-shariah, which guarantees access to justice, advances public welfare, and broadens everyone’s legal knowledge.
The AI Pilot Project is still in the testing stage, but it has already sparked important discussions about the future of AI in Islamic legal services among government agencies and academic institutions. Microsoft Malaysia and the Public Sector for Digital Skills co-organized the 2025 AI Hackathon for the Public Sector, where the ILA concept received a Special Mention Award. This acknowledgement highlights how the project fits with both USIM’s mission to unite intellectual and spiritual knowledge for the good of the ummah and Malaysia’s national digital transformation goals.
USIM’s project demonstrates that, in this age of swift advancements in AI, technology can provide more than just automation when it is directed by Islamic values, morality and responsibility. It has the potential to offer legal aid that is not only thoughtful and responsible, but also guided by maqasid syariah, enriched through the integration of ‘aqli and naqli knowledge, and deeply rooted in compassion and human dignity.