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Beyond AI adoption
AI adoption alone fails; strategic deployment determines whether legal delivers business value.
By Liz Zimick
The legal industry has spent years asking the wrong questions: Which departments have the most AI tools? Which GCs are moving fastest? Who’ s ahead in the adoption race? These days, speed of adoption is just table stakes. The real differentiator for legal functions in the next five years will be what happens after adoption. According to the Thomson Reuters Institute’ s 2026 State of the Corporate Law Department Report, 86 percent of GCs believe their departments make a significant impact on organizational objectives. Only 17 percent of C-Suite executives share that view, and 42 percent of senior leaders say the legal department contributes“ little or not at all.” This isn’ t just a perception issue. It’ s a strategy problem. AI is amplifying it.
The dangerous middle
Right now, the real risk for any legal department isn’ t falling behind on AI. It’ s getting stuck in the middle, adopting tools without rethinking how the department creates and shares value. Departments in this middle zone take on transformation costs but miss out on transformation value. They’ re not efficient enough to compete on volume, and they’ re not distinctive enough to earn a strategic seat at the table.
Most GCs have focused on unlocking capacity by streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, and getting work done faster. But few have taken the next step: using that new capacity in ways the business can see, tied to revenue outcomes, or linked directly to what the C-Suite cares about. The gap between unlocking and deploying is where the visibility problem
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