Align appetite for AI-driven innovation with budget allocation
The results of the Briefing Frontiers research for 2024 show that over 80% of law firms’ senior strategic leaders who responded to the survey say they’ve seen an increased appetite for investing in business transformation and service innovation. The inescapable daily news about generative AI (genAI) almost always includes how useful it will be for lawyers. Existing legal technology vendors have made major investments in their AI roadmaps, and venture capitalists are betting big on new contenders. But are law firms willing to make those same big bets?
Only 44% of respondents indicated their innovation budgets had increased, so while there seems to be huge enthusiasm, there may not be matching funds. It may be that senior leadership is forcing investment prioritisation or asking for quick returns from AI, as exploring genAI capabilities and the corresponding changes in processes and workflows is a big undertaking. It’s going to require the budget to support those efforts long-term. Perhaps current investments will allow teams to at least get started. However, the fact that over 10% of responding firms don’t have a budget specifically set aside for innovation is concerning.
Read more on Briefing: https://mag.briefing.co.uk/2024/02/27/sponed-frontiers24-netdocuments/content.html
