AI Adoption Is Easy. Changing How Legal Work Gets Done Isn't.
86% of the legal profession is using or piloting AI. Only 19% are actually redesigning how legal services are delivered.
That's the number that stuck with me after I sat down with Alison Laird, Director at the Centre for Legal Innovation (CLI), ahead of the CLI 2026 APAC Summit in Sydney. It comes from CLI's Future of Law research, which Alison gave us an early look at before the full summit edition is released on the day.
It's a big gap. And it says a lot about where the profession really is.
We've bought the tools. We haven't changed the work.
Alison put it simply: we've adopted AI much faster than we've changed the way we work. Buying technology is easy. Using it is getting easier. Changing how legal work is delivered, priced and managed is the hard part.
The research also found a striking split on confidence. 62% of respondents are positive about the future of law, but only 3% say the profession is well prepared for what's coming in the next three years. People can see the opportunity. They also know there's work to do.
The barrier isn't the tech. It's us.
When I asked why the lag exists, Alison didn't hesitate.
“The biggest barrier to the transformation isn't the tech, it's us.”
AI is becoming an organisational capability challenge, not a tool-selection exercise. Leadership, culture and confidence in change matter as much as the software. Trust matters too: in legal, you have to be able to trust the output. Alison's view is that lawyers aren't resistant to change so much as uncertain about what they stand to lose.
There's a governance angle as well. 80% of respondents are using general-purpose AI tools, but only 40% are using legal-specific ones. For smaller firms, sole practitioners and in-house teams, that's often about budget. But it raises real questions about risk.
The tools are easy to access. The foundations often aren't there yet:
Trusted knowledge and usable data
Clear processes
Governance to monitor usage and outputs
People who are AI literate, and increasingly AI fluent
As Alison said, these are the less exciting parts of innovation. They're also what will separate the firms that scale AI from the ones that just pilot it.
The market is getting more competitive
One session I'm looking forward to is a debate between in-house teams and law firms. If in-house teams can do more themselves, do they still need law firms? Alison's spoiler: yes, but for what?
Big firms, niche specialists, in-house teams, alternative legal service providers and tech vendors are all redrawing the lines. CLI is running a half-day workshop before the summit that puts those players in a room with a blank sheet of paper and asks what legal services should look like. I like that. Less talking about change, more building it.
What this means for talent
This is the part that matters most for the teams we work with. 88% of respondents expect AI competence to become a professional obligation. That doesn't mean every lawyer becomes a technologist. It means knowing which tool to use for which task, when not to use it, and what humans still do best: context, nuance, judgement and being a trusted adviser.
Alison also raised something I'm seeing in the market. Some in-house teams are now considering hiring graduates straight out of law school, because they're close to AI native and can help build new ways of working. The traditional apprenticeship path may be starting to shift.
And experience becomes more valuable, not less. If every firm can buy the same tool next quarter, the differentiator is your knowledge, your precedents and your ways of working. Alison sees knowledge managers and law librarians as the curators of that advantage.
Saving time isn't the same as creating value
“The productivity creates the opportunity for value. It isn't the value itself.”
If AI saves three hours, what happens with those hours? Better advice, better client outcomes, less risk? Or just more hours of work? Firms that answer that question honestly, and show clients the value, will protect their position.
Built now
The summit itself is deliberately different: no exhibitor hall and no sponsored product pitches on stage. Speakers from medicine, insurance and banking will share how other high-trust professions have navigated the same shift. The goal is for people to leave with a practical to-do list, not just ideas.
The theme says it best: Future of Law. Built Now. Or as Alison put it, “the only way to predict the future is to create it together.”
People in Legal will be at the CLI 2026 APAC Summit at the Hilton Sydney on 19–20 October. If you're going, come and say hello.
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