Retail Legal Teams Turn to AI for Cost-Efficient Demand Management
Retail companies are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help their in-house legal teams manage increased demand with limited resources. The second annual Legal Department Benchmarking Study, presented in a webinar, highlighted this trend among retail companies with median annual revenue of $6 billion.
AI is transforming legal services, offering use cases like simple searches, data navigation, deposition summarisation, document drafting, and powering Q&A chatbots for self-service initiatives. Retail companies are prioritising alignment with business strategy (93%) and cost-savings opportunities (71%) through AI adoption.
Legal departments are tackling increased demand by equipping other departments with self-help tools (56%), increasing use of outside counsel (43%), redistributing work (35%), and automating routine tasks (29%). The study, conducted on legalbenchmarks.ai, found that 32% of legal departments have adopted AI, with 50% planning to implement it in the future. Despite increased demand (75%), only 15% expect an increase in lawyer headcount and 32% expect an increase in legal department budgets. Technology, including contract lifecycle management software (70%) and electronic billing (58%), is playing a greater role in managing demand and resources.
AI is becoming integral for retail companies' legal departments to meet growing demands efficiently. With limited budget and headcount increases expected, AI and other technologies are crucial for managing cost pressure and aligning legal services with business strategy.
