Law firms face AI tool fatigue as legal tech market grows

In short: The legal software market is getting crowded, and many lawyers say they feel overwhelmed by the number of AI tools to choose from.

What's going on

Demand for AI tools in legal work is drawing in start-ups and investors, and it has led to a flood of new products. Alex Baker, founder of Legal Tech Collective, estimates there are now more than 5,000 legal tech companies worldwide. He says this growth is causing “tool fatigue,” which is when people feel worn out from evaluating and managing too many software options.

The Financial Times highlights four common problems these tools claim to solve, and it points to eight start-ups as examples. Some focus on precision in specialist work, like Centari for deal documents and Syllo for lawsuits. Others focus on finding knowledge inside a firm, like DeepJudge, or preserving an individual lawyer’s knowhow using a “digital twin” (a software copy that can answer questions based on that person’s past emails and documents), like Twin1 AI.

Other tools aim to help firms price work more predictably, like Narrative, which analyses past billing and budgets. There are also tools focused on client data limits, like Seedless, which creates realistic but fake case files so firms can test software without using sensitive client information.

What to watch

Experts quoted in the article say law firms should start by clearly defining the problem they want to fix, then run a short pilot test before signing long contracts. They also warn that training staff matters as much as buying software. Daniel Linna of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law says the bigger risk may be failing to educate people to use AI responsibly.

Source: Financial Times