Legal Leaders Must Treat AI Adoption as Culture Change, Not Just Technology
Legal organizations are deploying AI tools at scale while facing mounting pressure from regulators, conflicting client guidelines, and geopolitical risk. Success depends less on the technology itself and more on how leaders manage the human transition, according to a panel of legal technology experts discussing the 2026 Future Ready Lawyer Survey.
The core problem: 92% of legal professionals already use AI daily, but only 31% feel prepared for information security and governance. That gap represents an organizational readiness failure, not a technology problem.
AI Adoption Requires Rethinking Professional Value
Generative AI can now perform tasks that previously required specialized knowledge. This forces professionals to reconsider which skills remain durable in an AI-native workplace.
Kevin Cohn, General Manager of Brightflag, said the transformation differs fundamentally from past technology shifts. "It's causing everyone to have to fundamentally rethink what are the skills that make them valuable and differentiated in the workforce," he said. Humans remain relevant, but their value must shift away from routine work toward judgment and interpretation.
The survey showed that 62% of respondents report weekly time savings of 6% to 20% through AI use. That measurable benefit exists. The challenge is scaling it across organizations with confidence.
Change Management Is Half the Battle-Technology Is the Easy Part
Philipp Eder, lawyer and legal tech specialist, framed the problem directly: "Technology is the easy half. The difficult half is building trust, addressing fears, developing skills, redefining roles, and enabling leaders to guide the transition."
Every AI implementation is a change project, not a technology project. Organizations that treat it as a software deployment will fail.
Leaders must communicate that AI adoption is mandatory, not optional. But they must also abandon perfectionism. Cohn said organizations need to accept that "getting it mostly right is a perfectly fine starting point" for many use cases.
Speed and Governance Must Work Together
The old startup mentality of "move fast and fix problems later" no longer applies. Sergio Liscia, Vice President & General Manager of Legal Software at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory, said the mindset has shifted: "Move fast, but move fast with clear guidelines."
Organizations need clear governance frameworks, defined accuracy thresholds, and transparent processes about how AI affects different departments. The survey found that 40% of respondents expressed concerns about ethics, regulation, data privacy, and cybersecurity. These concerns are legitimate and require structural solutions, not dismissal.
Liscia said efficiency comes from combining speed with clear frameworks. Organizations that move fast without governance waste resources on rework and risk.
Bans Don't Work-Lawyers Will Use AI Anyway
Some legal departments have tried restricting AI use through strict guidelines. This approach backfires.
Marlene Gebauer, Practice Support Attorney at K&L Gates, said plainly: "Bans and restrictions don't work. Lawyers are going to use AI regardless. If the tools aren't approved, there's the possibility of using those things in an uncontrolled and dangerous way."
Instead, organizations should set clear expectations that AI should be used whenever it delivers faster, better, or less expensive service. Then monitor for the opposite signal: situations where humans are billing by the hour to do work that AI could handle.
Training Must Be Specific to Role and Task
Generic AI training fails. A litigator uses AI differently than a transactional lawyer. A partner has different needs than a first-year associate.
Gebauer said organizations should provide task-specific instruction tied to actual work, not abstract concepts. Employees need practical how-tos and the chance to experiment in a controlled environment before deploying AI on real work product.
Cathy Wolfe, Executive Vice President & General Manager at Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Legal Compliance, emphasized the value of letting employees "play with AI in a secure environment before using it for actual work product."
Leadership Must Model AI Use
If leaders don't use AI, no one else will. Eder was direct on this point: "If leaders do not use AI, no one else will."
Organizations should celebrate both successful AI use and intelligent failures. Cohn said teams need to see that experimentation is valued, not punished.
Building Human Infrastructure Matters More Than Tools
Gebauer summarized the core insight: maintaining a successful AI strategy requires building the human infrastructure to use it well. This means shared learning, ongoing conversations with clients about their needs, and change management that moves people from established workflows to AI-enabled approaches.
Eder added a final point: "AI is not a technology project. It's a culture project. If you change the mindset, you change the organization. If you only introduce tools, you change nothing."
For executives and strategy leaders managing AI adoption in legal departments, the message is clear. The constraint isn't technology capability. It's organizational readiness-training, governance, leadership commitment, and honest conversations about how work changes.
AI for Executives & Strategy and AI for Legal resources can help leaders develop the skills needed to guide these transitions.
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