AI LEADERS
Latest research: April 2026
A core element of the Briefing AI Leaders community is our ongoing research into what’s actually happening at the coalface of law firm AI implementation.
Here we're very pleased to present the results of the second round of our research — focused on progress with building use cases into workflows, the other features that matter to firms most, and appetite for client collaboration involving genAI. Read on to explore the findings in full.
Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions or suggestions relating to the project.
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Executive summary
Firms are positive about more efficient lawyer-client collaboration as an outcome of legal genAI strategy, with potential to make progress on a range of projects simultaneously, with more context and less duplication in delivery.
The latest round of Briefing AI leaders research was carried out over March and April 2026, focused on implementation of genAI within practice-specific workflows and the appetite for possibilities to transform processes in the world of client collaboration.
A clear majority of AI leaders report that their firms now have some genAI “playbooks” in place, signalling a move beyond the more ad hoc use oif recent years. However, nearly two‑thirds say these playbooks apply to just 1–10% of the potential use cases they have, and a further quarter identifying a range of 11–40%. This indicates that most law firms are still in an early scaling phase, with only a limited cohort decisively pushing true augmentation with genAI across a broader range of work types.
Cost pressure is already emerging as a tangible consequence though. Almost a third (32%) say genAI is having a moderate or significant impact on work margins, prompting internal discussions around pricing. More than half implicitly acknowledge that collaboration within the firm around development of new pricing models has not kept pace with technological change, underscoring some likely gap between delivery innovation and commercial strategy.
Leaders are quite clear on what they want from domain-specific genAI platforms. The most highly valued capability is robust integration with core firm systems such as document management (82%), followed closely by this ability to create practice‑specific playbooks (75%). There is also strong appetite for configurable AI 'agents' that are capable of completing end‑to‑end processes (71%), alongside clear and verifiable source citation (53%) to support trust in outputs. Shared client workspaces are equally attractive (53%), pointing to growing interest in more collaborative delivery models.
Activity levels, and interest, when it comes to lawyers and clients collaborating on work with genAI directly appear promising — while widespread adoption is perhaps something of a point of differentiation. Almost half of leaders (47%) say the firm is actively working towards real‑time, platform‑based collaboration with clients, although only 6% have already enabled this today. At the same time, 65% say their lawyers are already collaborating with clients directly using available genAI tools on a semi-regular basis, with a smaller number doing so more frequently. AI leaders believe that client sentiment is broadly positive about the idea — 53% say that clients are supportive if efficiency or service quality improves as a result — but a notable third remain uncertain about their clients' attitudes here.
Where platform-based collaboration has been enabled, the most common examples of where lawyers are already handling things differently are by effectively raising 'red flags' faster, for example during deal due diligence (50%), shared document review workflows (33%), and joint matter/project milestone-tracking (33%). However, other outcomes — such as maintaining shared records of client key terms to reduce rework — are still relatively rare (8%).
Looking ahead, AI leaders expect measurable operational gains from increased collaboration like this to accrue, particularly in day‑to‑day communication across firm and client teams (93%), automated adoption of client styles and preferences (80%), richer market intelligence capture (67%) and client self‑service (67%). Nevertheless, many leaders appear to see a need to prioritise improving internal collaboration before extending the opportunity for more genAI‑driven work/innovation externally.
From a risk perspective, however, expectations are entirely uncompromising. Data residency and sovereignty controls are universally required, alongside full audit trails (93%). Strong access controls and ethical walls are also seen as very important by many (87%), although fewer currently insist on instant revocation of third‑party access if necessary (67%).