How AI-Powered Collaboration Deepens Law Firm and Client Partnerships

The legal industry is experiencing significant change, driven by shifting client expectations, tighter budgets, and mounting pressure to do more with less. Teams are reporting record levels of demand from potential clients, and 83% of legal departments expect this demand to only increase. At the same time, firms face pressure to cut costs and deliver faster results.

These market shifts are underpinned by rapid advances in technology: AI adoption in the legal profession has surged from just 19% of professionals using AI in 2023 to 79% in 2024, reshaping how lawyers approach everything from research to drafting.

Clients are not only aware of these shifts, they’re driving them. Many corporate clients now require law firms to demonstrate how they’re leveraging generative AI (GenAI) to lower costs, sometimes making it a condition in requests for proposals (RFP). This transformation isn’t just about efficiency, though. It’s also driving a paradigm shift in how organizations and teams operate.

Collaboration has always been central to legal work, but regulatory changes, more complex cross-border matters, and increasing reliance on outsourced specialists have redefined what’s required for effective collaboration. International legal matters, for example, can involve dozens of law firms, and KPMG is calling 2025 the year of “Regulatory Shift” after regulators engaged in near-record levels of rulemaking in 2023 and 2024.

As a result, traditional, siloed approaches to legal collaboration can no longer keep pace with the scale and complexity of today’s work. AI offers a path forward — not as a replacement for legal expertise, but as a force multiplier for collaboration and, ultimately, a way for firms to better serve their clients by working without boundaries.

In addition to freeing teams to focus on higher-value and strategic work by automating routine tasks, AI tools also create more opportunities for real-time collaboration. This allows firms and clients to work in sync and achieve faster results without compromising quality. Before we dig into what’s possible in this new reality, it’s important to examine what legal collaboration has looked like up until this point.

Legal work has historically been facilitated by fragmented tools: tracked changes in Word, redlines exchanged over email, and documents saved in one firm’s system but inaccessible to clients or outside counsel. When work moves across firms, clients, and systems, progress stalls and the ripple effects are felt by everyone involved. This might come in the form of:

When leveraged effectively, a legal AI solution can be a catalyst for better collaboration. By capturing and preserving context in one place, knowledge no longer gets lost between email chains, phone calls, or multiple document versions. AI tools also help break down format and system barriers, improving accuracy and consistency across documents and streamlining review cycles.

Arguably most importantly, AI enables real-time and asynchronous collaboration. Lawyers can review, edit, and contribute on their own schedules, while AI ensures updates are captured and integrated seamlessly. This reduces bottlenecks, shortens turnaround times, and eliminates the friction of waiting for sequential handoffs. For clients, this translates to faster progress and greater transparency, even when legal teams span multiple practice areas, firms, or time zones.

Finally, by automating repeatable, time-consuming tasks — from contract review and summarization to organizing matter files — AI frees legal professionals to focus on higher-value strategy and client service. This is where selecting a legal AI platform with domain expertise is key — legal teams need purpose-built tools with the depth and customization required to meet the profession’s standards.

What does this look like in practice? For law firms, it might mean sharing AI-powered playbooks and workflows directly with clients, enabling transparent, real-time collaboration that moves beyond the inefficiencies of back-and-forth document review. This not only streamlines legal work but also builds stronger, more strategic partnerships with clients.

For in-house teams, AI helps them collaborate both with outside counsel and internally across their own legal departments and other business units. Instead of relying on fragmented emails and disjointed document handoffs, everyone works together in a single, AI-powered workspace.

Collaboration is no longer just an operational concern for legal teams. It’s a strategic investment, and can be a true differentiator in a competitive market. By embracing AI-powered collaboration, firms and in-house teams can shift from transactional exchanges of documents and approvals to fostering deeper, more strategic partnerships. The result is not only greater efficiency, but stronger relationships and lasting value for both lawyers and their clients.

There’s a lot to consider when selecting a legal AI platform, including that it enables collaboration without adding friction, and can tailor AI to your specific legal needs. It’s also important to choose an AI solution built with enterprise-grade security and governance — ensuring collaboration never compromises confidentiality or compliance.

If you’re starting the evaluation process for legal AI or need a framework to guide internal discussions, our new resource, 7 Key Criteria for Evaluating AI Solutions for Law, walks through the most important factors to consider.