As major corporations and top-tier firms accelerate their AI adoption and build out AI-led teams, the demand for AI literacy shows no signs of slowing – with the demand for tech-focused legal roles quickly “outpacing supply”.
As AI continues to reshape the legal profession, firms are rapidly exploring how to integrate AI into workflows, client services, and internal operations, with AI skills vital in the current market.
Last week, global law firm Linklaters launched a team of 20 specialist “AI lawyers”, giving practices “direct access to specialist AI legal expertise”.
The team, according to Linklaters director of AI delivery Sarah Barnard, is made up of external hires from a range of backgrounds, as well as experienced Linklaters lawyers who have upskilled in AI and have extensive knowledge of AI delivery.
“We are excited to launch our first cohort of dedicated AI Lawyers to drive our ambitious programme of work globally,” she said.
“By combining recently practising Linklaters lawyers and highly skilled tech experts in a single collaborative team, we will gain the versatility and depth of knowledge to deliver even more innovative solutions for our clients and our people.”
Demand growing for AI skills
Last year, research from PwC revealed a surge in AI-related jobs, as well as an associated wage premium of 49 per cent for lawyers in the US – with the report emphasising the importance of upskilling within AI and investing in AI skills and capability.
In an interview with the BBC in November, PwC global chairman Mohamed Kande also said that the firm would be looking to hire “a different set of people” in light of the AI boom, after cutting upwards of 5,600 roles globally last year.
Additionally, Accenture, which reduced its headcount by over 11,000 staff in the three months leading up to August this year, also said it would cut staff if they cannot be retrained to use AI.
The global consulting giant has retrained 550,000 of its staff – dubbed “reinventors” – on GenAI fundamentals, with CEO Julie Sweet confirming that upskilling is the organisation’s “primary strategy”.
This news, according to LegalScout co-founder Shamik Ghosh, should serve as a key example for law firms in what they “should start to implement” in the age of AI.
“For every law firm in Australia, this early indicator translates to starting to formulate specific change management programs across its staff base – on training, upskilling, certification and most importantly communication,” he said.
“Law firms, whether they have five employees or 10,000, should be building specific programs that move their staff along the adoption curve, building initiatives in four stages from awareness, understanding, acceptance, to ultimately adoption.”
Some US firms like Ropes & Gray have also started to hire AI-specific roles focusing on developing proprietary AI tools, offering an alternative to practice.
According to Major, Lindsey & Africa managing director Ricardo Paredes, these roles “pay very well”, and he expects that most top-tier firms will follow Linklaters’ lead, while firms that don’t invest in AI are likely to fall behind in terms of “speed, cost, and quality”.
“In the next few years, we expect firms to double down on AI tools and create large AI teams, building them into the foundation of how legal work is done,” he said.
“Our bet is that we’re not too far away before these roles become very in-demand. As firms automate more work – from research, to drafting, to due diligence – they will increasingly need lawyers who can supervise AI, design safe workflows, and understand both the technology and the legal risks.”
However, Paredes also noted that most lawyers still don’t have “true AI capability”, resulting in a gap across the profession.
“They may use AI casually, but they’re not yet trained in prompting, workflow design, supervision, or understanding AI’s risks. That’s why Linklaters’ move to build a 20-lawyer AI team is a big deal: it formalises AI expertise as a real legal skill, not a side interest,” he said.
“Another gap is the lack of AI systems built specifically for law firms that firms can use with confidence. Many firms, especially smaller ones, rely on public tools, which aren’t suitable for sensitive work. That’s why we think we’ll see more firms create their own internal, secure AI platforms or follow Linklaters by establishing dedicated AI teams who set standards and train others.”
The Linklaters AI Lawyers team will attend a “bespoke ‘bootcamp’ training”, according to the firm, which will cover strategic thinking on AI as well as change management and effective prompt and workflow creation.
The latter, Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt partner David Fischl said, is especially important for firms looking to build out their AI capability.
“A truly effective AI innovation team in a law firm can’t simply be an offshoot of IT. It has to be a multidisciplinary unit with its own mandate, yet firmly connected to the firm’s IT for cyber security, data governance and architectural decisions. Without that balance, firms either move too slowly or take risks they can’t see,” he said.
“A core capability of every team member must be the ability to map business workflows. If innovation isn’t built directly into lawyers’ workflows, it becomes shelfware, interesting to talk about, but rarely used and gathering dust.”
Is AI adoption driven by clients or firms?
Clients are increasingly demanding faster, cheaper, and more efficient legal work – and are beginning to question how firms are using AI to deliver on those expectations. At the same time, firms are under pressure to stay competitive, cut inefficiencies, and carefully manage risk.
Burgess Paluch consultant Emma Leeseberg said firms will likely follow the lead of Linklaters in a bid to stay competitive in the market, particularly as the profession continues to adopt tech at pace.
“Tech-centric legal roles have existed for some time in the major firms; however, there is now more of a focus on either newly created roles or making those roles more AI-focused,” she said.
“While the push to grow the area comes from both sides – the key driver is cost reduction for clients. We see the competition to attract and retain clients as the major motivator for firms to keep pushing to stay on top of the changing technology. Further, the proven efficiency of AI helps law firms internally to keep their own overheads lower, which allows for more spending in other areas to continue attracting talent.”
While PwC Australia contracts and legal transformation director Peter Dombkins said he’s also seeing a push for increased AI usage on both the client and the firm side, technology vendors could also be a driving factor for increased implementation.
“Demand for tech-focused legal roles is outpacing supply, and it’s happening fast. Given the rate of AI’s evolution, there is no such thing as an AI prompt engineer with over five years’ experience, and the current pool of individuals with foundational skill sets across document automation, legal process improvement, technology and change management is small,” he said.
“One possible scenario is where the biggest driver for AI adoption is neither clients nor law firms, but disruptive technology vendors themselves that jolt legal service providers to get serious about fully integrating AI across their operations.”
Redefining core legal skills in an AI era
As AI becomes woven into everyday legal work, the definition of core legal skills is shifting just as quickly – but while some firms are taking a structured approach, others are experimenting in an ad hoc way.
In addition to its innovation-forward culture, Lander & Rogers is focusing on a “safe, integrated rollout” to make AI part of its core infrastructure.
As such, AI literacy is now “as fundamental as legal research”, according to Landers chief innovation officer and transformation lead Michelle Bey, who said that in an “AI era”, future-ready lawyers need legal, technological and advisory literacy.
This means that lawyers need to be able to communicate with AI and know when (and when not) to use AI tools as well as guide clients through risks and opportunities.
“For junior lawyers, this means mastering technical fluency. For senior lawyers, it’s combining that fluency with strategic vision,” Bey said.
“Data from using enterprise-deployed AI at Lander & Rogers over the last two years has identified that [capability] gaps aren’t technical, they’re about broad AI fluency and the confidence to use and validate tools confidently.”
Junior lawyers are also developing core legal skills, as AI eliminates low-value tasks and frees up younger staff to focus more on analysis, strategy, client counselling and judgment.
In fact, Legora APJ lead Heather Paterson said that in the era of AI, document searches for contract values or standard clauses aren’t “legal skills, they’re administrative work that AI handles better”.
“AI literacy varies by seniority. Juniors need to prompt effectively and verify outputs, but they have a natural advantage as they’re more digitally native and familiar with these tools. This gives them a real opportunity to become AI champions within firms,” she said.
“Mid-level lawyers must understand workflow integration and when to delegate to technology. Partners need strategic AI fluency for decisions about practice development and competitive positioning. For firms, it’s about understanding the differences in literacy and supporting talent within the organisations that can champion Al, regardless of seniority.”
Although AI is doing more of the routine work, the “core skills” of the profession stay the same – such as judgement, ethics, understanding facts, strategy and communicating clearly with clients and courts.
“Partners’ AI knowledge and experience could perhaps be the biggest learning curve for the entire legal industry, and those in senior levels go back to being ‘on the tools’ to truly understand AI can leverage for their business. They must be AI-literate enough to own the risk – setting expectations, signing off on policies and making sure AI use lines up with the firm’s brand, pricing and obligations,” Ghosh said.
“If there are gaps, they must carve out time in their day to train and learn. This is critical as the right and efficient adoption of AI use within a firm’s practice can drive sustained revenue growth and profits in a highly competitive and disrupted market.”
However, lawyers must still verify outputs, apply ethical reasoning and ensure compliance, as well as “double down” on skills like nuanced judgement, client empathy, persuasive advocacy, and ethical decision making – human skills that “will always be central to client trust and legal outcomes”, according to Dombkins.
“Foundational legal knowledge is still critical, but the definition of ‘core skills’ will continue to evolve. What we’re seeing in the market is that AI-enabled legal services are no longer a nice-to-have offering; they’re becoming table stakes for large firms and in-house teams,” he said.
“That’s why the biggest gap that we are noticing is not just technical expertise but the strategic thinking behind technology. Firms really need to understand how AI can transform client service, improve efficiency, and create measurable value. The key decision that law firms and teams can make to address this gap is whether to build proprietary AI solutions or adopt off-the-shelf platforms.”
For innovation teams specifically, experienced lawyers who understand legal judgement and strategy will be vital.
That expertise must then translate into “both product design and technical architecture”, Fischl said, so that AI tools will reflect the way the law is actually practised.
“Above all, everyone needs a genuine product-development discipline. Without it, even the most exciting ideas die in pilot mode,” he added.
“The firms that will truly move the needle are those that start with need, not with the product. When innovation teams focus first on the problems that matter, the technology choices become clearer, and the outcomes far more impactful for lawyers and clients.”
Despite firms and lawyers embracing AI more than ever, law is still very much risk-averse, with Leeseberg still seeing a resistance to use emerging tech “in any way”.
“We do see a significant divide between lawyers who are less tech-savvy and those who are keen on AI and engaging in it. The legal sector is typically one of the slowest to make changes, especially in terms of procedures and where technology is involved, but eventually they realise efficiency is the key to survival and thriving, and the only way to remain competitive, and eventually get on board,” she said.
“In other non-legal sectors, it is clear that AI is the reality of the future, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes a right-hand tool for every industry. While it may be a slower transition within the legal sector, AI is a train that won’t be stopping anytime soon.”
Lauren is the commercial content writer within Momentum Media’s professional services suite, including Lawyers Weekly, Accountants Daily and HR Leader, focusing primarily on commercial and client content, features and ebooks. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications. Born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling.
