Law Firms Want AI Efficiency-But Authenticity Still Rules
Law firm comms teams are scaling up AI, but they're still wary of authenticity and reputational risk. A new white paper from Infinite, built on a closed-door roundtable of senior UK and US comms leads, signals a clear direction: AI will be embedded across most workflows within the next 12 months.
The draw is obvious-speed and leverage. Teams get time back for strategy, counsel, and relationship management. But the caution flags are real: data risk, trust, and whether AI-generated outputs truly reflect the firm's standards and voice.
Where AI Actually Works Today in Legal Comms
- New-hire announcements and bios that still get a human polish before going out.
- Training materials, internal FAQs, and onboarding content that benefit from faster drafting.
- Media prep: anticipating journalist questions, drafting holding lines, and building scenario trees.
- First-draft content for newsletters and thought leadership, with final sign-off by senior comms.
The Big Barrier: Unstructured Data
Participants called out a familiar blocker: getting AI to work safely with messy, unstructured files. One put it plainly: "The biggest barrier is around the unstructured data of the information. If we can get the interactions with our files right, that will be very powerful."
For legal comms, that means tighter data governance, clear retrieval rules, and strict access controls. If your model can't reliably pull the right facts from the right sources, you'll ship errors-or worse, expose sensitive material.
Humans Stay in the Loop-Especially in Crises
Even the most bullish teams agree: crisis communications needs people. Calming stakeholders, reading the room, and choosing the right tone is a human skill. AI can help with draft statements and scenario planning, but final judgment, timing, and delivery stay with the comms lead.
Practical Guardrails PR Teams Are Using
- Run an audit of AI use in internal and leadership comms. Does it improve clarity or erode trust?
- Codify voice, values, and non-negotiables. Build them into prompts, templates, and approval checklists.
- Start in low-risk workflows (announcements, internal FAQs) before you move into external, high-visibility work.
- Train for judgment, not just tools: writing, campaigning, message discipline, and stakeholder mapping.
- Use AI as a media rehearsal tool: simulate tough Q&A, build objection sets, stress-test key messages.
- Lock down data: permissioned sources, redaction rules, and logs for who asked what, when, and why.
- Set disclosure and approval policies. Who can use AI, for which tasks, and what requires human review?
- Measure outputs: speed-to-draft, edits per piece, error rates, and impact on stakeholder sentiment.
What Good Looks Like Over the Next Year
Expect more teams to bake AI into daily workflows with rigorous oversight: standard prompts, curated sources, and clear handoffs to humans at key risk points. The aim isn't to automate judgment. It's to free your experts to spend more time on counsel, narrative, and reputation.
As Infinite's UK head of professional services Ryan McSharry put it, "If communications fail to reflect the firm's standards and values, the risk to reputation can be significant." The firms that win here will pair innovation with tight policies and a deep read of their audiences.
Helpful references
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework - useful structure for risk, measurement, and controls.
- ICO guidance on AI and data protection - essential for teams handling sensitive UK data.
Build team capability
If you're formalizing AI skills across PR and comms roles, these curated resources can help:
- AI courses by job - targeted picks for comms and marketing teams.
- Prompt engineering - practical ways to get cleaner, on-brand outputs.
Your membership also unlocks:
