It changes the hours inside the work more than the work itself. The parts a client pays a professional for, the judgment and the signature, stay with the professional. I do not make predictions with dates on them. Here is what I see now and what a firm can do about it.
What gets faster?
The work that is reading, writing, and searching.
- Drafting. Letters, memos, engagement letters, workpaper notes, and client emails start as a draft instead of a blank page.
- Searching. Finding the case, the regulation, the prior-year file, or the clause across a stack of documents.
- First-pass review. Sorting documents, pulling dates and amounts, flagging the items a person needs to look at.
- Admin. Time entries, scheduling, intake, and the inbox.
What stays with people?
Judgment, signing, and the client relationship. A tool can draft the memo, but a lawyer or an accountant decides what it says and puts their name on it. Clients hire a firm to trust someone with a problem. That part does not move to a machine. The tool goes on the professional like a robot suit.
What happens to billing by the hour?
It gets questioned. When the first draft takes minutes instead of an afternoon, clients notice, and some will ask why the bill did not change. Firms that move more work to fixed fees or value-based pricing have an easier answer. The pricing decision belongs to the partners; I help them see where the hours are going first, task by task, so the conversation about fees starts from facts.
What should a firm do this year?
Three things, in order.
- Write a policy. One page: which tools are approved, what client information never goes in, who reviews AI output before it leaves the firm.
- Run one pilot. Pick one task that eats hours every week, such as engagement letters or client intake, and try it with a small group for a month. Write down how long it took before and after, and what the reviewer had to fix.
- Train people on real files. A demo on made-up examples does not stick. A session on your own templates and your own messy files does. See AI workshops.
What does it cost to get help?
- A half-day workshop with your partners and staff: $1,500.
- A fractional AI lead who owns the policy, the pilot, the vendors, and the training: $3,500, $6,500, or $11,000 a month, depending on the hours. See fractional Chief AI Officer.
Why listen to you on this?
I hold a fractional Chief AI Officer seat, and I was part of a group project for Thomson Reuters discovering ways to bring AI into the Westlaw product lifecycle and how lawyers would use AI as the tools mature. I am not a lawyer or an accountant, and nothing here is legal, ethics, or accounting advice. Your professional rules and your own counsel decide what your firm may do.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.