In-house teams increasingly see themselves as a strategic support function rather than just providing traditional legal advice, according to a report from Lawyers On Demand (LOD).
The survey – The Integration Imperative - Optimising the Legal Engine of the Future – found that 71% of in-house teams now identify as strategic business partners, up from 21% last year. That has overtaken the 62% who say their primary role is providing specialist legal expertise and judgement.
Given that wider remit, 56% of in-house teams said work volumes remain their biggest pressure, though taking on increased responsibility for technology decisions follows close behind (54%). LOD says those findings show in-house teams are under more pressure than ever before.
Simon Harper, founder of LOD, said: “In-house teams are redefining their mandate faster and more decisively than ever. This expanded mandate requires legal teams to simultaneously reflect on the context of their functions whilst managing ever-increasing workloads. This is not an easy combination.”
While AI and legaltech use is growing, adoption is shallow and disjointed, LOD says. As many as 46% of in-house teams say they are operating within fragmented systems, with 48% of those relying on manual workarounds and 34% experiencing duplicated data across multiple platforms.
In-house teams said document review and analysis is their most common AI use case, with 22% partially deploying and 14% fully deploying, followed by legal research (20% partially deploying, 11% fully deploying) and contract management (20% partially deploying, with 9% fully deployed).
A majority of respondents said they were seeing increased efficiency and productivity as a result of AI use (59%), followed by automation of routine tasks (34%) and reduced operational costs (22%).
Adoption barriers still remain. Some 34% of in-house teams say they are worried about accuracy and lack of trust, with 32% citing security and data concerns as a blocker. Just over a quarter (26%) also say a lack of expertise is slowing adoption.
Harper added: “The most successful teams will be those that can find the right balance – bringing AI and other tech systems together whilst embracing the vision of their best human talents, strengthening governance and creating flexible workforce structures. Reframing these competing priorities requires attention to the big picture and relationships with shorter term metrics – clearly acknowledging the trade-offs that we all need to make.”
The survey, now in its sixth year, was based on responses from 678 legal, risk and compliance professionals globally.
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