THE PROACTIVE AI ADVANTAGE IN PI LAW
WHY THE NEXT 3 YEARS WILL DECIDE THE NEXT 30
By Saam Mashhad, Chief of Product & Legal Operations and Co-founder of EvenUp
How personal injury firms integrate proactive AI over the next three years will determine who leads the industry for the next three decades.
AI is already reshaping which firms scale faster and smarter— and which firms quietly, but suddenly fall behind. Falling behind is easy to do given all the very real headwinds facing PI firms.
Non-attorney ownership, private equity, Big Tech, and national players are flooding the space with capital and speed. At the same time, firms are locked in a brutal talent war, struggling to retain experienced paralegals and associates while pouring on case volume. Cracks are widening in old operating models.
To understand where legal AI is headed, it helps to examine how AI maturity unfolds.
Waymo didn’ t start with driverless cars. It began by solving narrow problems— sensors, mapping, assisted driving— before deploying autonomous vehicles in limited, controlled environments. Autonomy came last, not first.
Legal AI began in 2021 by solving foundational problems: teaching machines to read medical documentation, distinguish document types, and extract diagnoses and treatments. By 2022, AI-assisted drafting emerged, but humans remained deeply involved at every step, deciding what to include, verifying accuracy, rewriting substantially. In 2023, AI drafts became usable starting points rather than rough drafts.
By 2024, certain case types and document sections could be generated with minimal intervention. Constrained autonomy is still autonomy. In 2025, the focus shifted from“ does it work?” to“ is it the best output?”
Now legal AI is entering its next phase: AI agents that take action across casework and proactively move cases forward, across dozens of critical touchpoints, including opening claims, confirming coverage, tracking treatment, chasing records, and verifying balances.
22 The Trial Lawyer