Why Law Firms are Moving Quickly to Adopt AI Tools

Major law firms have historically been luddites when it comes to the adoption of new technologies, but that doesn’t appear to be the case when it comes to AI. This Debevoise blog identifies one of the big reasons for that – clients are using AI tools to accelerate their own business decisions, and they expect their lawyers to keep up:

Until recently, many clients’ processes moved at roughly the same pace as their outside counsel. A business team developed an idea, the in-house legal team gathered facts, the company consulted outside counsel, and the decision moved forward when the pieces were ready. In that environment, a detailed legal memo from a law firm in two weeks could be excellent service, especially if the question was complicated, the risks were meaningful, and the answer required careful judgment.

But AI is accelerating the pace of business decision-making. For clients that are using AI effectively, the front end of many processes is getting much faster. A potential acquisition target can be screened more quickly. A regulatory question can be framed more precisely. A contract portfolio can be searched and summarized in hours. A product launch can be evaluated against prior risk assessments, market data, and internal policies before the first meeting is held. That speed is not just a convenience. In some cases, it is a significant strategic advantage, but that advantage can disappear if the outside legal advice arrives too late.

The blog says that as clients become more AI-savvy, they’re likely to lose patience with law firm processes that approach each question as though it must be addressed through a “bespoke, manual process.”  Instead, they’ll expect their law firms to “provide reliable advice in time for it to matter.”