85% of Law Firms Say Clients Are Driving AI Investment Decisions, New Litera Survey Finds

CHICAGO - May 20, 2026 - PRLog -- Litera (https://www.litera.com/?utm_source=media&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=2024-03_pr_pr%20parent%20tracking%20campaign), the legal AI platform provider that best unifies the practice and business of law, released the State of Legal AI: Spring 2026 Market Sentiment Report (https://www.thechanginglawyer.com/), published through the return of The Changing Lawyer, a publication that earned recognition as unique among partners and law firm executives during its original 2017–2022 run. The report is the first research published under 2026's revived publication, which also features several contributing authors from across the legal industry.

WHAT:  State of Legal AI: Spring 2026 Market Sentiment Report, published through The Changing Lawyer

WHERE: https://www.thechanginglawyer.com

"I started The Changing Lawyer nearly a decade ago because I believed the profession deserved a space to think about where it was headed, not a place to sell," said Avaneesh Marwaha (https://www.linkedin.com/in/avaneeshmarwaha/), CEO of Litera. "This State of Legal AI research reflects that. Without necessarily asking it out loud, clients are all wondering: is my lawyer actually better because of AI?"

Key survey findings include:

• 85% of law firms are already feeling or expecting direct client pressure on their AI strategy
• 32% cannot confidently demonstrate AI value to their most important client, and firms that can are better positioned to deepen relationships and win new work
• People, talent, and expertise — not technology — ranked as the top differentiator when every firm has access to the same AI
• 36% of firms say adoption, training, and culture is the biggest gap in their AI strategy
• ROI ranked last on two separate questions — the value story that resonates is time recaptured, not cost avoided

Fifty-one percent of respondents report that a client has directly influenced an AI investment decision in the last 12 months, and only 15% describe AI investment as still entirely internally driven.

"Client pressure is no longer theoretical, and firms are right to focus less on model access than on operational execution," said Casey Flaherty (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcaseyflaherty/), B+B Partner and Head of LexFusion Intelligence at Baretz+Brunelle. "In this market, unarticulated value is invisible value."

When asked what will differentiate their firm when every competitor has access to the same underlying AI, respondents pointed not to technology but to people, workflows, and data. People, talent, and expertise ranked first at 24%, followed by custom workflows and use cases at 18.7%, and proprietary data and knowledge at 13.3%.