2 weeks Ago By Dan Hauck, Forbes Councils Member
Former lawyer Dan Hauck (Chief Product Officer, NetDocuments ) is passionate about delivering enabling technology to the legal industry Like many other industries, the legal sector has been keen to jump on the AI train to drive greater efficiency and productivity. AI's rapid adoption by the legal sector, unlike its adoption of many technologies before it, shows an impressive willingness to experiment and innovate. Forward-thinking firms have seen the potential for AI to speed up workflows, automate repeatable tasks (such as contact analysis, drafting and data extraction) and optimize research processes.
It’s no longer a question of ‘if’ firms adopt AI, but ‘how’—they need a strategy that will unlock the best long-term benefits. With legal IT innovation showing no sign of slowing down, there is a lot for firms to navigate and consider. Two-thirds of firms say they are planning to increase their investment in generative AI (GenAI) over the coming year and are looking to move beyond pilot programs to wider AI adoption according to Delotte Legal's predictions report for 2025 .
In sharp contrast from previous machine-learning solutions, GenAI tools can not only “read” content but also “write” it and are valuable for use cases such as writing briefs and amending contracts. In turn, many firms are investing in GenAI. However, this initial adoption is often approached in a tactical manner, with firms using standalone solutions designed to address single projects or use cases.
This presents a number of challenges: Building a business case for investing in a new vendor can be very time-consuming for CIOs—the more suppliers they need to onboard and manage, the greater the level of complexity and risk. With AI, firms also need to navigate additional regulatory requirements and complex deployment timelines. All of this can make it difficult to create a coherent and well-governed AI strategy.
Forcing legal professionals to disrupt their workflow to access AI capabilities is a sub-optimal user experience. It’s similar to a household with multiple TV streaming subscriptions—it can take time to toggle between apps to find the programming you want. Time is money in the legal sector, so whether it is reviewing contracts, summarizing or deriving insight from documents, legal professionals don’t want to be toggling between different tools constantly.
Law firms manage sensitive documents every day, making security a top priority when adopting new technologies. However, if you are extracting data from existing systems every time to use with disparate AI tools, this can create new vulnerabilities that will potentially undermine ongoing data security. According to the research from Deloitte Legal, “Business focus is shifting from implementing standalone AI point solutions to integrating AI into existing business and legal workflows.
” Taking an integrated approach enables firms to implement secure, scalable technology to store contracts and client data, and use AI tools to analyze it. Additionally, by making AI capabilities accessible to legal professionals within the foundational systems (such as a document management system) they already use every day, you’re giving them all the benefits of AI without adding to their workloads. They can focus on their areas of expertise rather than having to spend time learning new technologies.
Integrating AI into existing workflows through a platform can also remove the need to move data into separate systems for AI processing. As well as improving the productivity of legal teams, reducing the scope and sprawl of the firm’s IT landscape makes life easier for firms and legal departments that only have a small IT team. By embedding AI at the platform level, firms can also support new and emerging use cases without needing to invest in additional technology.
When firms are under pressure to ensure AI aligns with business goals and unlock ROI quickly, being able to leverage a pre-built library of compliant and regulatory-ready tools can streamline vendor interactions, reduce administrative load and accelerate deployment timelines. The rise of AI creates great opportunity, enabling legal professionals to classify, understand and re-use crucial pieces of information in ways that have never been possible before. There’s a huge opportunity to drive more value from existing documents than ever before—but firms must choose the right tools if they want to deliver the best service to their clients, while maximizing productivity and minimizing risk.
Intelligent legal platforms are a strong foundation for AI innovation, bringing AI to the tools legal professionals are already using—and enabling them to do their best work. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?.
