Law firm leaders are racing to turn AI hype into measurable profit. Ashurst pioneered the trend in 2013 with Ashurst Advance, a shared‑service model that now handles roughly two‑thirds of the firm’s work across Australia, the Middle East and Europe. The unit blends lawyers, technologists and project managers to deploy tools from start‑up Harvey, Microsoft and Relativity.

Last year the team used generative AI to triage 100,000 documents for a multinational retailer’s Australian competition review, cutting a two‑week slog to 48 hours. Such speed draws attention from vendors; US‑based Harvey is valued at $11bn, while Sweden’s Legora sits at $5.6bn. Their promises of workflow transformation have spurred law firms and in‑house groups to allocate ever‑larger tech budgets.

Adoption, however, remains uneven. Mallesons’ chief innovation officer reports that convincing staff to trust AI outputs is the bigger hurdle, with only 22 % of lawyers expressing high confidence despite 83 % having access. Firms measure ROI through new AI‑driven services, task automation and win‑rates, but no single metric proves decisive. Pressure to prove value will intensify as Gartner forecasts corporate legal‑tech spend to double by 2028.