Competitive pressure. Law firms are watching their competitors adopt the tech quickly and loudly. A definite feeling of either we do it or we might lose out. Especially true when a number of firms are competing over the same work with the same clients.
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We’ve been doing this for 10 years. Built up the same calluses around the market for the same reasons. But this time feels different. A few reasons/hypotheses this may be happening:
“This AI is so powerful that widespread adoption will inevitably happen, like the smartphone” yeah if buying a phone involved every member of your extended family and Uncle Frank blocks it bc he thinks rotary phones work just fine
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Client pressure. Everyone is talking about it. Firms know they have to do *something*
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Insane value. The underlying technology is breathtakingly powerful. Does an A+ research memo in 90 seconds. Accurately extract all data from your contract database in a day. Run through all docs in a doc review/investigation in 2-3 days. Etc.
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Ultimately, the best firms care about doing a great job for their clients first and foremost (even above billables and other economic concerns) — they’re playing a long game. And they see an opportunity unlike anything past tech has offered in the past.
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Learning. Some firms are looking at adopting the tech today because they know how long it’ll take to drive internal adoption and education for tech that will ultimately be important for the firm. So they’re willing to dive in today, to get ready for 3 years from now
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All this said,
@heyitsalexsu
’s analysis in his excellent post () is still likely spot-on. Large law will be slower than smaller firms and corporate legal departments for all the usual reasons. But this time around has been so different.
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