The article below was written by James Grice, Lawfront’s Head of AI and Innovation, and published by Modern Lawyer in April 2025. It can be read here.
The legal sector is experiencing rapid transformation, driven by evolving client expectations, regulatory developments, and a significant shift towards digital technologies. As these technologies mature, the concept of a “digital associate” emerges as a compelling framework, helping law firms integrate technology into their teams as seamlessly as any new hire. This metaphor isn’t just useful – it’s strategic. It allows us to think about technology through the lens of recruitment, onboarding, development, and performance measurement.
Evolution and future role of AI in the legal sector
AI is no longer speculative – it’s fundamental to modern legal practice. Adoption rates among lawyers surged dramatically from 19% in 2023 to 79% in 2024, 1 reflecting an undeniable shift in the profession. AI is reshaping roles within legal teams, empowering lawyers to shift their focus from repetitive tasks towards strategic advisory roles and higher-value client interactions.
In practice, the future lawyer–AI relationship will be deeply collaborative. Imagine a lawyer drafting a document while an AI assistant surfaces relevant precedents, suggests edits, and highlights inconsistencies. The lawyer remains in control, applying human judgment and expertise, but the AI accelerates their work and enhances its quality.
This dynamic not only improves productivity, it creates space for lawyers to focus on what truly adds value – client relationships, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving.
As agentic AI – systems that proactively carry out tasks based on user intent – continues to develop, the potential impact will deepen. Firms must be ready to manage this shift, embedding AI tools safely and ethically within their operating models.
To guide this effort, recent benchmarking research such as the Vals AI Report2 offers crucial insight. The report identified specific areas where AI tools consistently outperformed human lawyers, including document Q&A, document summarization, data extraction, and transcript analysis. These are tasks where AI currently adds the most measurable value and where adoption can yield quick wins in terms of time savings, risk reduction, and consistency. By focusing initial investments and training efforts in these areas, firms can build confidence and deliver tangible benefits early in their AI journey.
Reimagining value in the age of AI
One of the biggest strategic tensions that arises from AI adoption is the impact on the traditional billable hour model. AI can complete tasks in a fraction of the time, raising an important question: how do we reconcile time savings with a model that still rewards hours worked?
This is an opportunity to reimagine how we price legal services and articulate value to clients. Instead of measuring value in time, we should increasingly measure it in terms of outcomes, insight, and impact. That means shifting to pricing models that reflect the strategic contribution of lawyers supported by technology – not penalizing efficiency but celebrating it.
We must also consider how to make AI-driven work billable. Where appropriate, we should look to productize services and include the cost of AI tools in our fees, particularly for fixed-price work. This allows us to recover investment in innovation while maintaining transparency with clients.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in legal workflows, rethinking pricing and value becomes not just beneficial but essential. Firms that make this shift proactively will be best positioned to thrive in a future where technology is a core driver of delivery.
Digital associate as a strategic framework
Incorporating technology effectively requires firms to approach adoption much like onboarding new talent. The digital associate concept enables us to visualize technology as a strategic, core member of our team – trained, monitored, and developed to enhance productivity. This framing moves us away from transactional tool adoption toward a model grounded in performance and value delivery.
Much like we would recruit a human associate for specific capabilities, we assess our technology options against the problems we’re trying to solve and the needs of our practice. Once selected, we embed the tool through structured onboarding, provide focused training, and track its usage and impact – just as we would with a new team member. The goal is not just to adopt a tool, but to integrate it meaningfully into our working practices.
A human-centered, collaborative innovation approach
We believe that successful innovation must be grounded in real problems faced by our people and clients. That’s why our approach to identifying and deploying legal technology is built around four key stages – Identify, Onboard, Utilize, and Monetize.
We work closely with SMEs and our Innovation and AI Champions group – a cross-practice, cross-firm community of enthusiastic early adopters – to spot opportunities and challenges in the business. By baselining current processes and involving our lawyers early, we ensure that any tool we select is solving a real problem and we can measure the impact.
We roll out technology alongside structured training and clear communication of its value. Adoption is tracked, supported, and encouraged. We provide ongoing support, feedback loops, and work closely with vendors to shape their roadmaps in line with our needs. Utilization metrics help us understand adoption and ensure we’re capturing the full benefit.
Finally, we look for ways to turn our innovation investments into measurable business value –whether that’s reviewing hourly rates in line with improved quality and speed, reducing the cost of fixed-price work through automation, or even billing for digital outputs.
This framework helps us systematically integrate and scale innovation across the business. It’s also flexible enough to support general-use tools like Microsoft Copilot, as well as niche solutions targeted at specific practice areas.
Ensuring competitive edge for boutique and regional firms
Boutique and regional firms face unique challenges in AI adoption but also hold a distinct advantage – agility. These firms can move faster than larger competitors when it comes to identifying problems, piloting new tools, and scaling innovation. The key is to approach AI not as a one-off investment, but as an ongoing capability.
Start with tools that deliver immediate value – automating repetitive work, accelerating research, and streamlining client communication. Ground each investment in a business case and track ROI using both quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback. Budgeting per-lawyer for innovation spend allows firms to scale thoughtfully while aligning technology investment with revenue and client value.
Equally important is the cultural side. Involve your lawyers in the process. Appoint innovation champions. Train your teams not just on how to use the tools, but how to think differently about legal work. With the right mindset and a focus on collaboration, even small firms can use AI to punch well above their weight.
The digital associate framework offers firms a powerful strategy to integrate technology effectively, enhancing both operational performance and client experience. But more than that, it offers a mindset shift – from using tools reactively to managing them strategically.
By embedding innovation into the DNA of the firm, aligning it with business objectives, and focusing on real problems faced by our people and clients, law firms of all sizes can turn AI into a competitive advantage. The future of law isn’t man versus machine – it’s people and technology working better together.
James Grice is head of innovation and AI at Lawfront. He has over a decade of experience in AI, with a strong background in designing and implementing innovative legal solutions. James supports Lawfront’s partner firms to better understand the challenges they face in terms of working efficiencies, collaboration, and the provision of the best possible service to clients.
