What AI Adoption Reveals About the Future of Legal Work

AI is rapidly reshaping how legal teams work, collaborate, and deliver value. That became clear during our recent webinar, which explored findings from RSGI’s new report, Defining the Impact of Legal AI: How Harvey Customers Realise Value, an independent study of how 40 global law firms and corporate legal departments define and measure the impact of AI.

The report reveals a clear inflection point: AI isn’t just improving legal work; it’s reshaping the structures, expectations, and skills that define the legal function. Firms and legal departments are beginning to rethink their business models, redesign workflows, and redefine the expertise their teams need.

Below, we unpack this shift and how it’s shaping the next chapter of legal work.

Across both law firms and in-house legal departments, AI is driving meaningful structural change. Early adopters are not only working more efficiently but also rethinking how their teams operate and how they deliver legal services.

For law firms, AI is opening the door to new business models. Firms are beginning to explore subscription offerings, workflow-based pricing, and productized services that become viable when routine work can be completed quickly and at scale. It’s also reshaping talent strategies, prompting the creation of new roles and expanding the skill sets lawyers need as technology-enabled workflows become standard.

In-house teams are seeing parallel shifts. By expanding internal capacity, AI enables legal departments to take on more work themselves and rely less on outside counsel. This frees lawyers to focus on strategic partnership — designing better processes, managing risk, and engaging deeply with the business — while positioning general counsels to play a broader, more forward-looking role.

These changes signal a profession evolving toward more adaptable models, stronger collaboration, and a greater emphasis on human judgment where it matters most.

The study highlights a set of early behaviors separating organizations that are realizing meaningful value from AI from those still finding their footing. During the webinar, RSGI Executive Director Reena SenGupta offered a practical roadmap for legal teams beginning to integrate AI into their work.

We’re already seeing these behaviors reflected in how leading teams are approaching adoption today. Below, we’ve paired each of Reena’s recommendations with a real-world example from our Innovation Spotlight series.

AI can create impact in many ways, such as time savings, improved work quality, expanded capacity, better client service, or greater lawyer fulfillment. Teams that articulate their definition of value upfront are better positioned to measure progress and align stakeholders around clear goals.

At Honigman, success is defined by their clients and lawyers. Esther Bowers, Chief Practice Innovation Officer, shared that they measure impact by asking questions such as, “How did GenAI enhance the client experience? What can we now do that we couldn’t before, or that competitors can’t? What business opportunities did we unlock? What goals did we help clients achieve?”

Throughout the study, power users — typically 20–30% of a team — deliver the strongest returns and help accelerate adoption across the organization. For example, power users report roughly double the time savings, averaging 36.9 hours per month versus 15.7 hours for standard users.

Power users model best practices, test new workflows, and demonstrate what’s possible when AI is embedded into daily work. Supporting these users early pays dividends as usage grows.

Gowling WLG leans on power users in their peer-driven model for AI training. Internal champions and power users share concrete examples within their practice groups. They also highlight pioneers who are discovering new ways to use [AI] in their domain, and the firm layers that with targeted enablement sessions. “The blend of formal coaching and grassroots storytelling helps the platform become part of everyday workflows,” said Al Hounsell, National Director of AI, Innovation & Knowledge.

High, sustained usage is one of the strongest indicators of value. Organizations that monitor legal AI activity levels, adoption patterns, and engagement trends can spot where support is needed and identify opportunities to expand impact. Usage data often reveals wins before formal ROI models do.

As Pierre Zickert, Counsel and Head of Legal Technology at Hengeler Mueller, put it: “The biggest hurdle isn’t writing the prompt — it’s remembering to use the tool.” Recurring users and rising prompt volumes are key indicators for the firm, and they track both closely.

Effective training doesn’t need to be heavy or technical. Short, practical sessions (paired with ongoing refreshers) help lawyers build fluency quickly. This approach lowers the barrier to experimentation and ensures that AI becomes part of everyday workflows rather than a standalone tool.

At Reed Smith, they’re taking a persistent, multi-pronged approach to driving AI adoption. Rich Robbins, Director of Applied Artificial Intelligence, noted, “Adoption is not a one-time thing. We use every internal firm communication channel available to us.” This includes self-service training, a dedicated page on their intranet, a rapid-response AI-focused internal email alias, an internal AI user community, weekly AI office hours, and the integration of AI into the regular training cadence.

Real-world examples — templates, workflows, prompts, and success stories — are among the most powerful drivers of AI adoption. Peer-to-peer insights and quick demonstrations often build momentum more effectively than formal documentation or top-down directives.

Michelle Mahoney, Chief Innovation Officer at King & Wood Mallesons, emphasized the importance of creating opportunities for lawyers to learn from each other. “By sharing ideas and experiences in open and accessible forums, we can build skills and deepen knowledge across the board,” she explained.

In addition to legal workflows, AI is reshaping the mindset and methods that underpin modern legal practice. As routine tasks become faster and more automated, many lawyers are shifting toward work that draws on strategy, creativity, and judgment. This is contributing to a broader move away from volume-driven execution and toward deeper, value-focused engagement.

This shift is also influencing how lawyers approach problem-solving. With AI supporting research, analysis, and drafting, teams can explore a wider range of options, stress-test ideas, and deliver clearer, better-tailored advice. Increasingly, quality is defined not by the time required to produce an answer, but by the insight and client experience it delivers.

At the same time, the skills that matter inside legal teams are evolving. Communication, collaboration, issue framing, and cross-functional thinking are becoming important complements to technical legal expertise. AI isn’t replacing lawyers — it’s helping create space for the human skills clients value most. For many teams, this marks the beginning of a new chapter in legal work, where technology can handle more of the heavy lifting and lawyers focus on the uniquely human elements of the job.

For a deeper look at these insights, access the full RSGI report and our on-demand webinar.