34% Of Lawyers Perform Better With AI: Here's How To Turn Hype Into AI They'll Actually Use

It's been a fascinating few years for legal tech, as change has been embraced in ways that haven’t really happened since the advent of email. It’s led to the rise of a huge amount of companies trying to build solutions or, in some cases, trying to find legal applications for solutions that have been built for other purposes.

In some cases, AI tools have been embraced and rolled out in ways that have led to large improvements for law firms and companies. But a lot of tools have fizzled out when dealing with the reality of day-to-day legal work.

The reality is that legal teams don’t need more tools. They need smarter ones.

A lot of the time, legal workflows don’t need fixing. They’ve evolved to be as they are because that’s what they need to be in order to work. Replacing or complicating them won’t work - but augmenting and supporting them to be more efficient and productive can be a difference-maker.

To get legal AI right in your organisation, download Definely's free guide "Success Tactics: The reality of AI and LegalTech Automation".

The workflow mismatch

A transactional lawyer spends much of their day in Microsoft Word. It’s where the drafting happens, where markups are shared, and where reviews happen. Asking someone to upload a document to an external AI tool, wait for processing, then re-import it to continue working isn’t just inefficient, it breaks the flow of their work.

If a tool breaks that workflow, it doesn’t matter how well it does what it does. It creates a barrier to use. The more high-pressure or demanding that workflow is, the less likely people are to introduce complications into it. A tool that slows you down, even slightly, can feel like more work, not less.

The level of trust needed to change that workflow is huge, and there just isn’t that widespread trust in AI yet.

The damage of a poor roll-out can be long-lasting as well. If a tool has been pushed onto people to use and they haven’t seen the benefits they were told they’d get, then they’re going to be less likely to overlook their misgivings about the next tool. Instead, it’s more likely to be a case of "oh, another one".

What makes tools sticky?

Making any tool sticky is difficult, including AI tools. But Definely tools have proven to be just that. We think it’s down to three main factors:

1. First, they integrate directly into the tools lawyers are already using. No switching tabs, no logging into separate systems and no interrupted workflows. The tools should be embedded where they’re needed.
2. Second, they should be a replacement for toil. The benefit comes from spending less time and effort on time-consuming and laboursome (but necessary) problems like reviewing standard clauses, checking documents against internal guidance, and proofing for consistency. Being able to reduce this toil and create more space for thought is the kind of benefit people like.
3. Third, they have to be somewhat intuitive. No one wants to have to fully retrain on something unfamiliar. They need to be well-designed and clear if they’re going to catch on, otherwise they’ll be too complex to win hearts and minds.

Build for flow, not flash

At the end of the day, successful legal AI isn’t about building something shiny, it’s about building something useful. That means starting with workflows, not features. Building around real legal work means understanding the daily problems that lawyers face, and then building solutions to them.

In order to get people to use the tools regularly, the benefits need to be clear. If they are, and they solve problems, then you will be more likely to join the 34% of lawyers that find themselves better off for using it.

No matter what tool you’re rolling out, if you want it to be adopted by your people, you’ll need to get the implementation right. That means building some strategies for change management.

If you’d like to see how to get it right, Definely’s guide: "Success Tactics: The reality of AI and LegalTech Automation" - breaks it all down. You can download it, right now, for free.

Sponsored by Definely.