In-house legal teams are turning to AI to handle routine work while preserving headcount, according to executives at Workday and Prosus. Aine Lyons, deputy general counsel at Workday, argues that AI should amplify human expertise rather than replace it. Her team aims to resolve three-quarters of its 25,000 annual sales queries using AI assistance.

Gitte Groenewold-Wong, head of group legal at Dutch ecommerce investor Prosus, reports that team size remains unchanged while capacity has expanded significantly. Her department consolidated nearly 50,000 IP records from over 300 jurisdictions into a single dashboard through partnerships with DLA Piper and Von Seidels, demonstrating how legal departments are becoming central to corporate AI strategies.

Legal teams increasingly rely on AI 'deflection' to handle repetitive queries rather than traditional Q&A approaches. However, trust remains limited—only 22% of surveyed legal professionals express high confidence in AI outputs. The technology carries substantial costs, with platforms like Harvey running hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, prompting Workday to acquire AI startup Sana outright in November 2025.

The shift reflects growing pressure on white-collar workers to demonstrate efficiency gains. Legal departments, traditionally viewed as cost centers, are now positioned to show measurable ROI through AI adoption while maintaining human judgment for complex matters.