Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently warned that AI could automate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs by 2030. While the legal sector is often viewed as insulated due to its complexity and need for judgment, many tasks traditionally carried out by junior lawyers or paralegals are already being automated. Amodei’s remarks highlight that transformation will not be gradual or optional, but swift and structural. 

This article explores how AI is already transforming legal work - from improving efficiency to enabling entirely new ways of delivering value, and what this means for law firm leaders, in-house teams, and legal professionals. It considers the strategic shifts underway, the evolving expectations of clients, and the capabilities lawyers will need to thrive in this new environment.

The early stages of transformation are already well underway. We are seeing real impact today, particularly in areas like contract analysis, due diligence, and legal research. In some cases, firms are reducing time spent on such tasks by over 30%. But beyond efficiency, AI is now playing a role in strategic contexts such as supporting pitching, negotiation, planning, and decision-making. Increasingly, AI is helping legal professionals shift from reactive problem-solvers to proactive risk advisors by spotting issues earlier and embedding legal insight into the day-to-day operations of businesses.

And this is just the beginning.

Deloitte’s latest legal predictions report anticipates a fundamental shift in how legal professionals will interact with and benefit from AI. Clients are no longer asking whether AI is being used – they are expecting it. In his book How to Think About AI, author Richard Susskind offers a compelling framework for understanding how AI could transform professional work through automation, innovation, and ultimately, elimination. 

Automation focuses on using AI to replicate existing tasks more efficiently. Innovation goes further, redesigning processes and service models entirely. But the most radical shift is elimination where tasks, or even entire functions, are no longer needed at all, because AI enables us to solve problems in completely new ways. To unlock AI’s full value, we need to move beyond automation and begin thinking in terms of innovation and even elimination. This could mean embedding legal advice directly into business platforms and processes, offering more scalable, preventative, and cost-effective solutions.

One of the most promising, and challenging, possibilities is the role AI could play in closing the justice gap. Millions of people around the world face legal challenges without access to help, not because the law does not apply to them, but because they cannot afford it. AI could change that, but only if we’re bold enough to reimagine how legal services are designed and delivered.

AI is also set to reshape the business model of legal services. As technologies mature, there will likely be a shift in how legal value is produced and delivered. A significant portion of legal work may no longer require traditional human labour at all. Much of today’s work could be self-served, handled in-house, or embedded into automated systems. Law firms may increasingly specialise - some doubling down on AI-augmented specialist advice, others turning expertise into client-facing tools and products. These shifts will challenge long-held assumptions about how legal services are structured, staffed, and monetised. 

But structural barriers remain. Many firms still operate on a partnership model that was never designed to support long-term investment in technology. We’re already seeing moves toward corporate or private equity-backed models to unlock the agility and capital needed to keep pace.

One of the most important competitive differentiators will be access to high-quality legal data - the raw material that enables effective AI. This pressure to consolidate data may drive mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Larger, data-rich firms will become more competitive, strive to win more work, and generate even more data, thus creating a powerful virtuous cycle.

Yet this raises important questions. Who owns legal data? How is it governed? Could AI-enhanced legal services become concentrated in the hands of a few? And as AI is trained on past legal work, how does it avoid reinforcing old biases?

Meanwhile, technology companies are hiring lawyers and delivering legal services through their platforms. We may be entering a world of lawyer-enabled tech, not just tech-enabled lawyers - a shift that could fundamentally redraw the boundaries of the profession.

For law firm leaders, in-house teams, policymakers, and educators, the gauntlet is down: we must move from experimenting with AI tools to reimagining legal service delivery altogether. Are we building organisations that are culturally and structurally ready for AI? Is the industry investing in people as much as platforms? Legal innovation can no longer be a siloed project, it must be part of how the profession works and evolves. 

This shift also raises pressing questions about legal talent. What capabilities will tomorrow’s lawyers need - not just to operate AI, but to co-design with it? How do we prepare them for roles that require judgement, adaptability, and technological fluency? 

Deloitte’s latest Human Capital Trends report highlights a growing disconnect between what employers expect in terms of applied, real-world readiness and what new professionals have had the chance to build. As AI absorbs more routine tasks, the remaining work will demand deeper human judgment and the ability to collaborate with intelligent systems. It is therefore important to rethink how legal talent is trained and developed through real-world, AI-integrated experiences that prepare them to thrive in a new kind of legal environment. If half of entry level job are automated, as Amodei suggests, the foundational experiences that once trained junior lawyers could diminish. Legal educators and employers alike must proactively design new pathways that replace routine work with high-value, AI-enabled experiential learning.  

AI holds extraordinary promise for lawyers, but more importantly, for the clients, businesses, and individuals they serve. But realising that promise will require legal professionals to rethink how they work, serve, and prepare the next generation.

As the legal sector moves from exploration to implementation, professionals at all levels can take practical steps to harness the potential of AI and future-proof their services:

1. Go beyond efficiency: Do not stop at using AI to speed up existing tasks. Look for ways to innovate or eliminate outdated processes entirely and rethink how legal problems are solved, not just how they are executed.
2. Unlock legal data and knowledge: Treat legal data and institutional knowledge as strategic assets. Consolidate, govern, and structure them in ways that allow AI to surface insights and embed legal guidance directly into business operations. Continually capture expertise and outcomes to reinforce and compound knowledge within AI systems turning experience into a flywheel for improvement.
3. Embed AI across legal processes: Look beyond individual tools and embed AI across the entire legal workflow - from intake and triage through to research, drafting, review, and client delivery. Building seamless, end-to-end systems is key to sustainable value and transformation.
4. Evolve the business model: Consider how law firm structure, revenue model, and service offerings need to change. Explore new models such as client-facing legal tech products or alternative business structures to support long-term innovation.
5. Upskill for AI collaboration: Train legal professionals not only to use AI, but to design legal services that embed it. This includes building judgment, adaptability, and tech fluency – all the skills critical for the future of the profession.
6. Prepare for talent transformation: Rethink how junior lawyers are trained. As AI takes on routine work, experiential learning and real-world AI integration become essential for developing meaningful legal expertise.
7. Watch the market edges: Keep a close eye on non-traditional players (like tech firms entering legal delivery) and understand how they are redefining client expectations and the profession’s boundaries.
8. Make AI strategy core: AI adoption should not be confined to isolated pilots. Embed AI thinking into every aspect of legal service delivery, from strategy and governance to client engagement and talent development.

The question is no longer if AI will reshape legal services, but whether we are preparing ourselves to lead that change, or simply to catch up. It’s time for legal leaders to take a more intentional stance by embedding AI strategy into every aspect of service delivery, capability development, and client engagement. This means moving beyond experimentation and pilot projects, and instead building the structures, skills, and governance needed to make AI a sustained part of how legal work gets done. 

Ultimately, the hot topic question at the forefront of everyone’s mind is not only how the legal profession will use AI, but what kind of legal future we intend to build with it, one that is not merely more efficient but more accessible, innovative and aligned with the needs of the people it serves. 

For more information, please contact Bruce Braude, Partner and Global Chief Digital Officer, Deloitte Legal.