What you need to scale AI with confidence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer an experiment for legal professionals. It’s the foundational technology that transforms the way legal teams operate, bill, and manage risk. On March 10, we launched the first episode of our Future Ready Lawyer 2026 webinar series, “Building Trust in the Age of AI,” focusing on how organizations can responsibly scale this technology.
This webinar went beyond theoretical discussions to highlight how organizations can build a trusted framework and shed light on the realities of technology adoption. By understanding the latest data and expert insights, legal operations leaders can take control of workflows and ensure their teams use new software effectively and securely.
How technology is shaping the legal profession
This session focused on rapidly moving from piloting individual tools to scaling across teams and regions. Participants explored findings from the 2026 Future Ready Lawyer Survey, which revealed that 92% of legal professionals currently use at least one AI tool in their daily work.
The data presented during the webinar clearly demonstrates the current impact of technology on the legal field.
- Productivity gains are real. 62% of respondents reported saving 6-20% of their work week due to process automation.
- Revenue is increasing: 52% of law firms and legal departments expect a 6-20% increase in revenue from software investments.
- Barriers still exist. Despite high adoption rates, 39 percent of professionals cite a lack of training and resources as a major challenge, and 41 percent of law firms are concerned about ethics and data privacy issues.
Key insights from the webinar
1. AI adoption is no longer a problem, scaling is.
One of the clearest signals from the debate was that the law was beyond the experimental stage. With more than 90% of legal professionals now using at least one AI tool, the challenge is no longer about access or willingness. It’s consistency, ownership and scale.
Several panelists emphasized that today’s use of AI is highly fragmented, with different tools, approaches, and maturity levels, often used within the same organization. As Elgar Weijtmans and Ken Crutchfield pointed out, this fragmentation may work during pilots, but quickly breaks down as teams try to operationalize AI across the enterprise.
The real question facing legal leaders today is not whether AI is being used, but rather how it is managed, embedded, and maintained across teams.
2. The hard part about AI is not the technology. It’s the people.
A recurring theme was that the technology itself is only a small part of successful AI implementation. AI implementation is about 20% technology and 80% people.
Companies and legal departments that see meaningful results invest heavily in training, change management, and workflow redesign. This means not just providing access to tools and hoping for adoption, but also enabling small groups, mapping real-world use cases, and showing lawyers how AI fits into their day-to-day work.
Panelists emphasized this, noting that adoption will not scale with one-time training. The more quickly lawyers can see the relevance when it’s needed, the more it scales. Without it, even the best technology stalls.
3. Shadow AI is a governance failure, not a user failure.
Concerns about “shadow AI” (lawyers using consumer-facing tools outside of authorized systems) repeatedly surfaced.
The panelists explained that shadow AI emerges when official tools are difficult to use, poorly integrated, or simply unavailable. Lawyers are always drawn to the easiest path to getting the job done.
The most effective way to reduce shadow AI is not through stricter enforcement. It’s a better design. Once secure, approved AI tools are built directly into document management systems and workflows, the incentive to use external tools is greatly reduced.
4. AI will not replace lawyers. It exposes what only lawyers do.
Perhaps the most philosophical insight concerned related aspects of the same change.
AI is rapidly removing the non-legal and “context” work that used to be the core of legal decisions, but which took up huge amounts of time. As that work disappears, the profession is forced to confront deeper questions about what constitutes unique legal expertise.
This has implications far beyond efficiency. It impacts pricing models, staffing, the role of in-house teams and law firms, and even how legal value is defined. AI does not diminish the role of lawyers. Narrowing down roles to the most important strategic core.
Why is this important for legal operations?
There was one consistent message throughout the discussion. AI is accelerating changes that were already underway in the legal field. Successful organizations are not those that chase the next model or tool. They will be the ones who are invested in leadership, governance, and clarity about how legal work is actually done. For legal operations, these insights mark a shift from tool evaluation to operational leadership. The value now is in defining governance, incorporating AI into workflows, and driving consistent adoption across teams. Legal operations will become the connective tissue between strategy, technology, talent, and outside counsel expectations, ensuring that AI delivers scale, trust, and measurable impact rather than isolated efficiency gains.
For more valuable insights, download the Future Ready Layer 2026 report. Trust in the age of AI: Extending AI across your organization. Or register for the rest of our webinar series.
