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Matt Lautz, Founder and CEO of Neostella, is a software veteran with 20+ years of experience helping law firms streamline their operations.

getty​Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools is a top priority for companies, with a Thomson Reuters survey finding that “80% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years.”

But while AI can be a helpful tool, the industry is not without its fair share of embarrassing blunders. A judge fined one legal team $5,000 for submitting fake case law created by ChatGPT; a Colorado lawyer was suspected of using AI to draft a legal motion that included incorrect and fictitious case law; even high-profile lawyer Michael Cohen supplied legal citations to his attorney, falsely assuming an AI chatbot functioned like a traditional search engine. ​

Potential pitfalls abound. While new AI tools can effectively reduce busywork and help summarize enormous amounts of information, they aren’t ready to replace the foundational elements of legal practice—and even introduce new complexities that require further human oversight.​

In other words, AI doesn’t automatically confer competitive advantage. Law firms must strategically deploy the technology as an integrated assistant that maximizes efficiency without compromising the human empathy, judgment and trust that clients actually value.​

Modernizing Work And Protecting Client Trust ​While legal professionals are eager to find efficiencies using AI tools, their clients are much less enthusiastic about the prospect.​

Early adoption can be messy, and clients aren’t paying top dollar for legal guidance they could generate themselves through a simple text prompt. To avoid the pitfalls of early adoption, firms need to start with their core mission. Identify the areas where these tools can increase team effectiveness without undermining client trust. This might include using AI to:​

• Elevate support staff. Administrative tasks keep lawyers from focusing on high-value work and maximizing billable hours. Automating or augmenting repetitive administrative tasks can free up paralegals to provide better direct support to attorneys.

• Protect human strategy. Keep humans accountable for strategy. Use AI to accelerate research, analysis and preparation, but preserve human ownership over any process involving legal strategy, client communication and advocacy.

• Establish data boundaries. AI introduces significant data privacy and security risks for law firms, requiring clear boundaries specifying exactly what information the software can access.

• Prioritize transparency. Many lawyers use AI, but I see few disclose it to their clients. Clients need to fully understand how technology is used in their cases because operational efficiency is completely worthless if it destroys confidence in how sensitive information is handled.​

AI is only as effective as it is successful at achieving better legal outcomes for clients and more efficient workflows for legal teams. That’s why rumors that the legal profession is about to be replaced by AI chatbots are greatly exaggerated. Instead, the most successful lawyers will be those who strategically embrace this technology to augment their expertise, streamline their operations and deepen client relationships.​

Deploying Technology As An Assistant​Law firms don’t inherently need more technology. They already deploy dozens of software solutions that tend to sit in isolated silos, overlap in functionality or go severely underutilized. Adding another AI tool on top of disconnected data and workflows just creates another layer of complexity.

What firms need instead is a stronger foundation: connected data and workflows that let AI work across the business. From there, the most impactful use case is to orchestrate and delegate routine tasks using technology, freeing lawyers to focus on high-value work and service to clients.​

In other words, deploy AI as an assistant. This requires a shift in how lawyers delegate. As many lawyers have already learned, AI isn’t a data repository or a more powerful search bar. Treat AI like a highly capable member of the team, very knowledgeable and eager to help, but often lacking the discernment or lived experience to make strategic decisions. Give it the right information, a defined role and clear accountability for where human review is required.​

For example, this assistant can be used to summarize a 50-page deposition, draft an initial discovery request or cross-reference statutory updates, all of which are overseen and reviewed by a senior attorney. This accelerates case preparation while keeping human judgment at the center of client representation.​

As technology becomes more capable and use cases more practical, firms will need to become more intentional about where automation ends and human judgment begins, continually auditing and refining that line as it shifts. This partnership will constantly require auditing and refinement to decide which tasks should be automated and which should remain strictly human.​

Don’t Automate Away What Clients Actually Value​Law firms will (and should) always seek productivity gains, but simply accumulating more software tools, even highly touted AI solutions, does not necessarily lead to success. After all, clients don’t just hire attorneys to process their data. They hire them for advocacy and confidence during some of the most critical moments of their lives.​

Talent remains the most enduring competitive advantage. The best technology doesn’t make your lawyers less important; it makes their time more valuable by unlocking the full potential of every person on staff to deliver exceptional results for clients through human connection.​​

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