AI is reshaping legal marketing and business development, but its biggest impact may be less about replacing established practices and more about helping firms deliver them more effectively.

In a panel moderated by Jon Brewer of Intapp, Raya Blakely-Glover of Bird & Bird, Heather Vadgama of Walkers and Peter Skinner of Wedlake Bell discussed how AI is influencing client development, thought leadership, data and the role of marketing and BD teams.

For Raya, technology needs to support the entire client journey. Whether firms are investing in websites, AEO and GEO, content publishing platforms such as Passle, relationship intelligence or CRM, those investments only create value when lawyers understand and use them. Technology should ultimately enable lawyers to deliver more value and build stronger client relationships. 

Heather highlighted how AI is changing the digital landscape for law firms. High-quality thought leadership remains an important way to demonstrate expertise and create opportunities for client engagement, but firms increasingly need to consider how those insights are discovered and distributed. The opportunity is to combine great content with visibility, distribution and relevance, getting the right insight in front of the right client and using it to start meaningful conversations. 

Peter brought the perspective of a mid-sized firm, where AI is being introduced alongside the fundamentals of positioning, key account management and client development. Different audiences discover and buy legal services differently, making agility essential. While AI can help lawyers and BD teams target clients and work more efficiently, Peter emphasised that human expertise and judgement remain critical.

This was echoed in the discussion around data. AI can analyse far more information, but its outputs are only as valuable as the data and context behind them. Raya highlighted the continued importance of human judgement and trust, while Heather stressed starting with strategy and identifying what data is actually needed to make better decisions. 

The panel also explored how AI is reshaping marketing and BD roles, automating more manual activity and creating space for teams to focus on strategic, client-facing and commercially valuable work.

4 Key takeaways

• Thought leadership remains critical, with distribution and relevance helping maximise its impact.
• Technology only creates value when people use it, making adoption and enablement essential.
• Human judgement matters more than ever, particularly around data, context and client relationships.
• AI can elevate marketing and BD teams, freeing them to focus on higher-value strategic activity.

The opportunity for firms is not simply to use AI to do the same things faster. It is to combine technology with human expertise to share knowledge more effectively, strengthen client relationships and drive sustainable growth.