By Bryon Bratcher
Early in 2023, our team began investing serious time following large language models. We had been working with AI going back to 2018, but always with a clear understanding of its limitations. In 2023, those assumptions began to break.
As model capability improved, it became clear that prior constraints no longer held. That required more attention, more testing, and more direct engagement. Our time with AI has only increased since then, not out of curiosity, but out of necessity. The pace of change made that unavoidable.
What follows are three developments I am not just predicting, but seeing consistently in conversations with peers.
Law firms will stop just buying AI and start building it.
A recent Wharton study found that roughly one-third of enterprise AI budgets are now going to R&D. That shift matters. It signals a move toward ownership of AI strategy, development, and governance, rather than relying solely on vendors.
How this impacts purchasing decisions is still playing out. What is already clear is that some law firm leaders do not believe differentiation will come from adopting the same universal tools as everyone else. They see advantage in developing solutions tailored to their firm, their practices, and their clients.
AI leadership inside law firms will become unavoidable.
More than 60% of enterprise companies are already hiring Chief AI Officers or equivalent roles. That same research shows professional services experiencing more impact from AI than sectors like manufacturing.
Today, fewer than 5% of AmLaw 200 firms have a Chief AI Officer. That is changing in real time.
So far, most firms have addressed AI by expanding the mandates of innovation teams or by hiring relatively junior roles with AI in the title. As AI becomes more central to firm operations, that approach will stop scaling. Senior AI leadership will follow, and those leaders will be responsible for building teams beneath them.
As a result, hybrid legal and technical talent will only become more valuable.
What will not happen is AI enthusiasm fading.
The idea that legal AI was a temporary phase will not age well.
Firms are not stepping back after experimentation, even when experiments fail. Instead, they are scaling what works or returning to the drawing board to refine it. What is notably absent is any meaningful pause.
If you are interested in what else we are seeing, feel free to be in touch.
👉 If your department is exploring AI, get in touch.
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