The legal sector has spent much of the last three years in a state of high-octane anxiety, oscillating between the fear of being left behind and the terror of implementing technology that might hallucinate a precedent. The initial rush to adopt Generative AI was characterized by a frantic search for the “killer app,” a standalone oracle that would draft briefs, negotiate mergers, and perhaps even brew coffee.
However, as the dust settles in 2026, a more pragmatic, albeit less cinematic, reality has emerged. The tech has unequivocally arrived, but for many firms, the transformation has stalled at the desktop.
Millions have been poured into sophisticated cognitive engines that sit unused, idling like sports cars in gridlock. For IT directors and C-Suite leaders staring at lackluster adoption dashboards, the confusion is palpable. The algorithms work. The security is robust. So why aren’t the lawyers using it?
According to Avaneesh Marwaha, CEO of legal technology giant Litera, the industry has fundamentally diagnosed the problem backwards. The resistance is logistical rather than ideological in nature. In an industry where time is literally money, friction is the ultimate enemy.
“The biggest barrier isn’t skepticism about AI – it’s workflow disruption,” Marwaha explained to UC Today, pinpointing the precise moment where most digital transformation projects fail. “Lawyers are deeply embedded in familiar ways of working, and when new tools feel additive rather than integrated, adoption slows.”
For tech leadership in law firms, from the CIO to the buying committee, this is arguably the critical lesson of the post-hype era. The most powerful neural network is useless if it requires a partner to alt-tab away from their contract. Success in 2026 isn’t about how smart the machine is but how invisible it can be.
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The Friction Fix: Why Context is King for AI to Thrive in the Legal Sector
For decades, legal tech vendors pitched their wares as revolutionary destinations, platforms that lawyers would eagerly flock to. The reality on the ground, however, is that lawyers live in documents, not dashboards. They inhabit Microsoft Word and Outlook with the same permanence that a mechanic inhabits a garage. When a firm introduces a shiny new AI tool that sits outside this ecosystem, its capabilities are irrelevant if it is fundamentally an intruder.
The “additive” nature of early AI tools, where users had to leave their drafting environment to consult a chatbot, created a cognitive load that most fee-earners simply rejected. Marwaha argued that the winning strategy is elegant integration:
“We see higher usage when AI is embedded directly into existing environments like Word and Outlook, rather than requiring lawyers to switch contexts or learn entirely new interfaces.”
This concerns both psychological safety and intuitiveness. For a profession that is risk-averse by design, the leap to a cloud-native, AI-driven workflow can feel like a jump into the abyss. Marwaha noted that the most successful firms are those that build bridges rather than burn boats. They are managing the transition by offering a “safety net” that respects the inertia of legacy habits while gently nudging users toward the future.
“What’s working is giving firms a safety net, allowing parallel access to legacy tools while encouraging experimentation in the cloud,” Marwaha added. “That approach lowers friction and builds trust organically.”
The AI Plumbing Problem: Integration Over Isolation
If adoption is the front-end battle, the back-end war is being fought in the server room. For years, the primary concern of IT and security leaders was protecting the perimeter to keep data safe. While security remains non-negotiable, it is plausibly no longer the primary bottleneck. A growing headache in 2026 is the unglamorous work of plumbing, connecting these new cognitive engines to the labyrinth of legacy systems that keep a firm breathing.
Marwaha suggested that while vendors have spent years proving their security credentials, the actual implementation challenge is far more mechanical. It is about making distinct systems talk to each other without stuttering.
“Both matter, but integration is usually the heavier lift,” Marwaha asserted when asked to choose between security and connectivity as the greater hurdle. “Most firms already have mature governance and security expectations, so AI tools must fit within those frameworks rather than redefine them.”
The complexity arises because legal work is rarely linear. It bounces between document management systems (DMS), billing platforms, drafting tools, and email threads. An AI that sits in a silo, unaware of the file history or the client billing code, is a massive liability. It creates data islands that require manual bridging, exactly the kind of “scut work” technology was supposed to eliminate.
“The real complexity comes from connecting AI into the systems lawyers already rely on; document management, drafting, comparison, matter workflows, and billing. AI that operates in isolation creates more work, not less.”
The Legal Sector Talent Renaissance: Debunking the ‘Robot Lawyer’
Perhaps the most persistent myth of the early 2020s was the notion that junior associates were on the verge of obsolescence. The fear was that automation would hollow out the bottom of the pyramid, leaving firms with a top-heavy structure and no way to train the next generation.
HR leaders and managing partners are finding that the “AI lawyer” was a red herring. The headcount hasn’t collapsed, and the “Prompt Engineer” job title hasn’t taken over the recruitment boards. Instead, the shift is more subtle and sustainable. According to Marwaha, it’s a story of augmentation, not replacement.
“What we’re seeing is far more reskilling than role replacement,” Marwaha observed. “Firms aren’t suddenly hiring large numbers of prompt engineers or AI specialists. Instead, they’re enabling lawyers and support staff to work more efficiently within familiar roles by embedding AI into everyday tasks.”
This reframes the ROI calculation for the C-Suite. The goal is to cut drudgery instead of staff. By stripping away low-value tasks, such as late-night formatting checks and tedious clause comparisons, firms are effectively buying back their lawyers’ capacity for higher-level strategic thinking. The technology is serving as a force multiplier for human judgment, not a substitute for it.
“The most successful firms view AI as an accelerator for existing expertise, not a substitute for it,” Marwaha elaborated. “That mindset reduces internal resistance and helps firms focus on practical outcomes, such as better turnaround times, improved consistency, and the ability to handle more complex work, rather than chasing entirely new job categories.”
Measuring Reality: The ROI of the Mundane
In the heady days of 2023, AI ROI was often waved away with vague promises of “future-proofing.” But as CFOs and buying committees tighten their scrutiny in 2026, the demand for hard data has intensified. The metric of choice is no longer “tokens generated” or “chat sessions started,” but rather “friction removed.”
Marwaha pointed out that firms are moving away from vanity metrics toward what he calls “operational signals.” The return on investment is most vividly apparent not in high-concept legal reasoning, but in the unsexy “business of law” functions, the due diligence and document handling that constitute the engine room of any major transaction.
“Firms are increasingly looking at operational signals rather than abstract AI metrics. Meaningful ROI often shows up faster in workflow-heavy areas like document comparison, due diligence, and business-of-law functions than in pure legal judgment tasks.”
This focus on the mundane allows for faster wins. It is easier to measure the time saved on a document comparison than the quality improvement of a legal argument, and when firms can prove that the technology is handling the grunt work, trust builds.
“When AI removes friction from everyday processes, firms begin seeing measurable value within months rather than years,” Marwaha added.
Crucially, this value is underpinned by a new approach to governance. The “black box” era is now behind us. Clients and firms alike demand transparency. They need to know when a machine was involved, and they need the ability to turn it off.
“A key governance strategy is choice: allowing firms to toggle AI capabilities, select models, and fall back on established, non-LLM approaches when required by client policies,” explained Marwaha. “AI governance today is less about automation and more about informed, auditable decision-making.”
What Next For AI in the Legal Sector?
The legal industry stands at a fascinating juncture. The breathless hype has receded, leaving behind a set of tools that are powerful, pervasive, and increasingly utilitarian. For the C-Suite, the mandate arguably should be to stop looking for the magic bullet that replaces your workforce, and start building the infrastructure that empowers them.
As Marwaha emphasized, the firms that win in this new era won’t be the ones with the flashiest tech stack, but the ones with the most seamless workflows. In a profession built on precedent and precision, the greatest innovation of all may simply be the ability to get the work done without the headache.
“The strongest positioning focuses on where AI delivers real, explainable value today,” Marwaha concluded. “Firms should communicate AI as a practical capability embedded into trusted workflows, not as a replacement for professional judgment.”
