A survey published online in 2026, drawing on responses from over one hundred General Counsels, Heads of Legal and Legal Operations Directors at major organisations across nine industry sectors and four regions, devotes considerable attention to the relationship between in-house legal departments and their external legal service providers.
Client expectations of external providers
In-house legal departments surveyed hold specific expectations regarding their law firms’ use of AI. 78% identify cost reduction as the most important benefit they expect from external providers’ AI adoption, followed by improved quality of legal services (57%), more innovative pricing models (55%), faster turnaround of work (45%) and risk mitigation (43%). In this context, some General Counsels have already set targets to reduce external legal spend by 20–40% over the next two to three years.
The anticipated impact on pricing models
85% of respondents believe AI will change how law firms price their work to a moderate, large or very large extent. The share of work currently billed on an hourly rate stands at 72%, but is expected to fall to 44% within two to three years. This pattern is consistent across all regions: in EMEA, the hourly share is projected to decline from 74% to 48%; in the UK and Ireland from 62% to 39%; and in the Americas from 82% to 56%. 42% of General Counsels believe that AI-generated cost savings should be shared equally between the external provider and the client.
The current state of dialogue between firms and clients
The survey identifies a significant gap between client expectations and law firm behaviour. 58% of General Counsels say their external providers rarely or never proactively raise the subject of AI benefits. Only 4% report having directly experienced those benefits through their firm’s work. 48% of legal departments have had no conversations on the topic with their external providers, while 19% are at the stage of initial discussions. Just 13% have reached a more advanced stage, including co-developing solutions or incorporating AI-related criteria into their provider selection processes.
The law firm business model and competitive pressure
The survey describes an environment in which AI exerts structural pressure on the traditional law firm economic model, built on hourly billing and large cohorts of junior lawyers engaged in high-volume work. The activities that have historically formed the training ground for junior lawyers – document review, research and first-draft preparation – are among those with the highest automation potential.
Firms navigating this transition in a more structured way are described as those that have begun to rethink their service delivery model, invested in new professional roles combining legal and technical skills, and redesigned internal development pathways around simulation, structured learning and competency-based progression. On the technology side, approximately 62% of law firms’ AI investment is directed toward purchasing third-party solutions, while 38% goes toward developing proprietary in-house tools.
