The window for being an AI "early adopter" has closed. That's the blunt message from Thomson Reuters' latest research and for Marketing and BD leaders at law firms, the implications are hard to ignore.

Your clients are ahead of you. 

Corporate legal and tax departments are more enthusiastic about AI adoption than the law firms serving them. Clients increasingly want their outside firms using AI, yet fewer than 20% are formally mandating it through guidelines or RFPs. The result is an awkward limbo, clients expecting AI-driven efficiency, firms unsure how to signal it. For BD leaders, this is both a vulnerability and a significant opportunity.

Workflow transformation is already underway. 

Among professionals currently using GenAI, over 80% do so at least weekly, with (a) research, (b) document summarisation, and (c) drafting the dominant use cases in legal. The question for CMOs isn't whether AI is changing how legal work gets done it's whether your firm's positioning reflects that reality.

Agentic AI is the next wave to watch. 

While only 15% of organisations currently use agentic AI, 53% are already planning or exploring it. For forward-thinking firms, this is a differentiation story waiting to be told, particularly to corporate clients who are actively looking for efficiency gains and expect their outside counsel to be looking ahead alongside them.

The conversation gap is a BD gap. 

Roughly 40% of law firms report receiving contradictory client instructions about AI use (obviously quite confusing) use it, don't use it, depending on the matter. Meanwhile, three-quarters of respondents believe firms should be the ones to initiate AI conversations with clients. That's a clear mandate for Marketing and BD teams: own the narrative, start the dialogue, and make your firm's AI approach a feature, not a footnote.

ROI measurement remains a weak spot across the board. 

Only 18% of organisations track AI returns in any meaningful way, and fewer still measure externally focused metrics like client satisfaction or new business won. Firms that can credibly demonstrate measurable client value from their AI investments will have a genuine competitive edge.

The firms that win won't just be using AI. They'll be communicating about it strategically and that starts with the Marketing & Business Development team!

Embed Link of Summary Video from Thomson Reuters