Why AI capability is key to retaining top lawyers – LexisNexis
AI-driven changes in the legal sector now affect both the work being delivered, as well as the career paths of modern legal professionals.
This impact of AI on career trajectory is one of the clearest messages in our latest report, AI and the redesign of legal work. Based on our data, a new question has come to light: How can organisations prioritise talent retention while implementing AI responsibly?
AI capability is becoming a baseline expectation in the legal sector
For the first phase of the generative AI boom, firms highlighted AI investment as a point of differentiation. Today however, organisational AI capability looks less like a sign of ambition and more like an expected feature of a credible, modern legal workplace.
Our report revealed that 37% of UK legal professionals said their career progression would suffer if their organisation failed to embrace AI, up from 28% last year. At the same time, 18% said they would consider leaving if their organisation does not invest in AI, up from 13% in 2025.
The significance of that shift should not be underestimated. The lawyers most likely to notice a lack of meaningful investment in AI capability are often those paying closest attention to the direction of the profession and the skills that will define successful practice in the years ahead.
AI proficiency means more than tool access
When it comes to implementing AI tools at an organisational level, providing access to AI tools is insufficient for a satisfied workforce.
Although many lawyers are already using AI across research, document analysis, knowledge work, and drafting, only 17% say AI is embedded in their team’s strategy and operations. 65% of legal professionals believe that teaching AI as a “thinking partner” rather than a shortcut to answers will help junior lawyers build strong legal reasoning and judgement skills. This gap suggests that employees want a stronger bridge between AI access and structured deployment.
When AI finds its way into research, drafting, and knowledge workflows before a coherent operating model has been established, the result is often a patchwork approach: different teams use different tools for similar tasks, relying on inconsistent review standards, and making judgment calls without a clear shared framework. Where there is no firm-wide clarity on appropriate use, approved systems, checking requirements, or decision-making responsibility, adoption can outpace control.
This is where firms need to get practical. Tool-specific training matters, but so do the signals around it. Workflow playbooks, approved use cases, prompt templates, review protocols, and clear oversight all show that AI is being taken seriously as part of legal work, not treated as an informal extra.
Make AI deployment a ‘Human + Machine’ approach
One of the strongest ways to think about AI policy deployment comes from John Craske, Chief Innovation & Knowledge Officer at CMS, whose ‘Human + Machine’ approach is covered within our report. He explains that,
Some tasks and work will have more tech and AI, others will have less, but at the core it’s about our people working with AI and tech to enhance what we do for our clients.
This approach works if firms are clear about where AI can and should be used, and where humans must continue to lead. Client understanding, risk judgment, negotiation, nuance, and defensibility are not secondary skills in an AI-enabled practice. They become even more important as technology takes on more of the mechanics.
This task differentiation approach is crucial for retention. Lawyers want to know their firm has invested in the right tools and how those tools will shape their growth and development.
The firms that keep talent will be the firms that build confidence
In the end, the objectives for building an AI implementation policy must balance innovation with workforce support.
The organisations most likely to retain ambitious legal professionals will be the ones that treat AI as strategic enabler, not a communications exercise. They will move with purpose, put guardrails around use, and develop strategic workflows.
Because the signal lawyers are sending is now hard to ignore: if you do not build capability, some of your best people will look for a place that will.
