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As artificial intelligence reshapes how legal work is delivered, a report from Axiom has revealed that corporate legal teams are becoming more selective about who they trust to help them adopt and apply new tools.
New research from Axiom Global suggests that demand for outside AI guidance is strong, with legal teams increasingly turning to alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) for tool selection, implementation, and AI-enabled work.
Furthermore, the data highlighted an escalating friction over the impact of AI efficiencies on billing, with numerous clients now demanding or brokering lower price points.
Concurrently, the research indicated that ALSPs are establishing themselves as the favoured choice for executing AI-driven legal operations, specifically regarding large-scale and information-heavy projects.
The research comes following another recent report, which showed that ALSPs are becoming a mainstream, flexible resourcing option for in-house legal teams, enabling general counsel to address urgent or project-based work without increasing permanent headcount and often at a lower cost than traditional law firms, while giving teams greater flexibility in allocating work.
This transition prompts critical inquiries regarding the ability of conventional law firms to remain congruent with the shifting demands of their clientele and the transformative fiscal landscape of the legal sector.
The report highlighted that most legal teams want outside guidance on AI, and most current users would use an ALSP.
According to the survey conducted by Axiom, 77 per cent of non-adopters say outside guidance would help with AI tool selection; 98 per cent of current AI users say outside guidance on AI tool selection would help; and 96 per cent of current AI users would use an ALSP for AI adoption or implementation.
This indicated that although a majority of in-house departments are embracing AI, a deficiency in internal proficiency regarding deployment and oversight is fuelling an integral requirement for external specialised counsel and ALSP partnerships.
Speaking to this, Chris Frickland, vice president of AI solutions at Axiom, emphasised the critical operational nuances that govern successful integration and noted that the true challenge lies within organisational execution rather than technological capability.
“The technology is not the hard part,” Frickland said.
“The layer around it is where value either shows up or it doesn’t; that means getting the tool set up for how in-house legal teams actually work, training people to use it effectively, and staying with it long enough to see the payoff.
“That’s the kind of governance most legal departments haven’t had to build traditionally, and it’s exactly what we see separating the leaders from everyone else.”
Moreover, it was found that corporate legal departments increasingly view ALSPs as reliable partners for strategic AI guidance, and 98 per cent said that guidance from a trusted third party would be beneficial.
Regarding the most trusted sources of advice for legal AI tool selection, ALSPs were leading from the front, with 43 per cent of legal teams indicating it as their first preference.
This was closely followed by management consulting firms at 39 per cent and then industry associations at 35 per cent.
Perhaps surprisingly, law firms were selected by 33 per cent of legal teams as the most trusted sources of advice, with AI closely following at 31 per cent.
The findings seemingly suggest ALSPs are well placed to capitalise on growing demand for external AI expertise as corporate legal teams seek support with adoption, implementation, and AI-enabled work.
This growing reliance on ALSPs could create a further challenge for traditional law firms, as clients reassess how legal work is delivered and charged in what is an increasingly AI-driven market.
