Your platform is being renewed, not fixed
The incumbent added an AI module to an architecture designed before any of this. The AI-native tools are better at the narrow task and do not touch matter management, e-billing, accruals or spend reporting. Somebody has to test that on your matters before you sign again.
The platform reckoning is a calendar event
Every department we talk to is in the same position. The system of record does the boring, essential work — matters, invoices, accruals, reporting — and its AI features arrived as a module, priced as an upgrade, demoed on someone else's data.
The AI-native tools are genuinely better at the narrow thing they do. None of them run your accrual process. So the choice is not a bake-off between two products; it is a coverage question about which work each one leaves on the floor, and what it costs you to bridge that gap.
28%
of general counsel name technology and AI their top priority for 2026 — double the 14% who did in 2025.
Thomson Reuters Legal Department Operations Report, 2026
48%
of corporate legal teams say the right tools aren't in place.
Thomson Reuters Legal Department Operations Report, 2026
2×
legal technology budgets are on course to double by 2028.
Gartner, May 2026
The question to ask yourself
When does your ELM contract renew, and who is going to tell you whether the AI module is worth it?
If the answer is the vendor, you already know how that assessment reads. If the answer is nobody, that is the sprint to run first.
The blocker is delivery, not strategy
Almost nobody says technology is their constraint. They say they do not have the people, the training or the translation of a strategy into this quarter's priorities. That is a delivery problem, and roadmaps do not fix delivery problems.
So we sell capacity: a scoped piece of work, a date, a deliverable you keep. Not another assessment of where you should be in three years.
48%
name staffing as their top constraint. Budget is 24%. Technology limits are 8% — the tools are rarely the problem.
Thomson Reuters Legal Department Operations Report, 2026
42%
say their people aren't equipped or trained to use what they have.
Thomson Reuters Legal Department Operations Report, 2026
36%
say the strategy was never translated into priorities.
Thomson Reuters Legal Department Operations Report, 2026
What we build for departments
The work that reaches production tends to be unglamorous and close to the process the team already runs.
- Contract lifecycle and self-service intake
- Legal front-door and triage agents
- Policy and playbook assistants
- NDA and vendor-paper review
- Board and compliance reporting
- Matter and spend analytics
Fixed-fee sprints
Two to three weeks, one approver, a deliverable you keep whatever happens next.
- 2 weeks
Shadow AI Governance Quick-Start
Find out which AI tools your team already uses, then make that safe.
Sprint details → - 3 weeks
Outside Counsel AI Supplement & Firm Assessment
Put AI terms in your guidelines, then find out how your panel actually answers them.
Sprint details → - 3 weeks
Three Metrics That Matter
Three numbers your CFO believes, with the plumbing to refresh them.
Sprint details → - 3 weeks
AI Tooling Reality Check
What you own, what you use, and what the demo did not show.
Sprint details → - 2 weeks
Prompt & Workflow Starter Kit
Ten tested prompts for the work your team actually repeats.
Sprint details → - 3 weeks
Spend Leakage Teardown
Take one invoice sample apart and show where the money goes.
Sprint details →
Programs
Two to six months, scoped after evidence rather than before it.
- 3–6 months
Platform Reckoning
Decide what to do about the platform you are about to renew.
Program details → - 3–6 months
AI Build — pilot to production
One use case, built and put into production, with evidence it works.
Program details → - 2–4 months
Spend Intelligence
Turn invoice data into decisions about firms, rates and staffing.
Program details → - 3–6 months
Operating Model & Transformation
Fix how the work is staffed, routed and measured — not just the tools.
Program details → - Ongoing, monthly
Fractional Legal Technology Leadership
The legal technology leader you need two days a month, not five days a week.
Program details →
Start with one sprint
Two to three weeks, one approver, a deliverable you keep. Tell us the problem and we'll come back within one business day with a scope, a date and a fee.
Scope a sprint →