From Tools to Transformation
What Real AI Adoption Looks Like in Law Firms
By Dan Boyles, Head of AI Strategy, First AI Group
AI is everywhere in legal right now - from glossy demos to firmwide pilots. But while the buzz is buzzing, real transformation is rare. Too many firms are stuck in what we call “AI theatre”: experimenting with tools like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT, without embedding them into the fabric of legal work. The result? Interest without impact.
At First AI, we’ve worked with global firms like Norton Rose Fulbright, Hill Dickinson, and others who have moved beyond the hype. What sets them apart? They’ve stopped treating AI as a tech rollout and started approaching it as an operational and cultural shift. They’ve recognised a simple truth:
Legal teams don’t need more tools. They need embedded, intelligent, AI‑powered automation.
The Tool Trap
In many firms, AI tools are treated as isolated experiments. Associates dabble with clause drafting or use Copilot to summarise documents, but only occasionally. Tools are bolted on, not built in. There’s no consistency, no process, and no strategic direction.
A clause comparison tool that isn’t linked to your precedent library. A due diligence platform that outputs PDFs no one reads. A chatbot disconnected from your document management system. These are disconnected fixes - not transformation.
We call this the Tool Trap: investing in AI, seeing a few wins, but failing to scale or embed it. After a few months, momentum stalls. The reason? These tools sit on the edges of legal work - not inside it.
How Leading Firms Are Doing It Differently
Firms like Norton Rose Fulbright and Hill Dickinson took a different path. They didn’t just roll out software. They reimagined how legal work gets done, embedding AI into the workflows, habits, and systems lawyers already use.
Here’s what that looked like:
Champions Programmes
We helped these firms build structured networks of internal advocates; lawyers, not just tech teams, who led from within. These champions shaped use cases, shared wins, and kept momentum alive.
Prompt Libraries
Practice-specific, battle-tested prompt libraries saved lawyers hours, not minutes. These weren’t just example prompts - they were operational playbooks, continuously updated by the teams using them.
Copilot Drop-in Clinics
Fee earners brought real work problems to weekly sessions and solved them together, learning in context. Not formal training - real enablement.
Embedded Support
Real-time helpdesks and coaching built confidence and capability at the point of need, not weeks later.
AI Governance and Guardrails
Together we built the frameworks, policies, and risk management protocols that allowed innovation to scale safely across the firm - without slowing it down.
In these firms, AI wasn’t a “tool” lawyers might open. It became a natural part of how work gets done.
Five Foundations for Real Legal AI Adoption
Based on our work across the sector, here are the five pillars of successful AI transformation in legal:
- Champions, not just users: Adoption doesn’t scale without leadership from within. Champions bridge the gap between legal operations, client needs, and emerging AI capabilities.
- Embedded support, not ad-hoc training: One-off workshops don’t shift behaviour. Live clinics, on-demand support, and coaching at the moment of use build real confidence and momentum.
- Persona-based training and role design: What an M&A partner needs from AI differs from a litigation associate. Tailored enablement makes AI immediately relevant. At Hill Dickinson, we also helped rethink support roles (e.g., what a PSL or paralegal does when AI handles first drafts or data extraction).
- Prompt libraries that reflect legal work: Prompting is a skill. Curated, use-case-specific prompts co-developed with lawyers drive both quality and consistency. These libraries act as shared knowledge systems - refined by practice, not theory.
- Compliance built in, not bolted on: Leading firms design governance frameworks that support SRA, GDPR, and other regulatory requirements from day one - without becoming innovation blockers. With Norton Rose Fulbright, we co-created safe AI usage policies that empowered teams to act decisively.
Beyond Experimentation: Building Capability
This isn’t about tech, it’s about transformation. It’s an operational and cultural shift. The firms ahead of the curve aren’t just buying tools - they’re building capability. They’ve moved beyond experimentation and are changing how legal work gets done.
They’ve built the structures, support systems, and skillsets to make AI part of their core operating model.
The rest of the sector now faces a different question, not “should we use AI?” but:
How do we embed it so deeply into our workflows, people, and processes that it becomes indispensable?
It’s not a future vision. It’s already happening - firm by firm, practice by practice. The difference is those who’ve moved from tools to transformation.
