In-house lawyers are being tasked with new strategic and technology decision-making but without the nature of their work changing, a new report has found.
The review by legal consultancy service Lawyers on Demand found that in-house lawyers are redefining their role, with 71% now identifying themselves as strategy business partners. In comparison, 62% regarded themselves as having a specialist legal expertise role. The proportion viewing themselves as strategic advisers has increased by 21% since the same survey was carried out last year.
But this responsibility has brought extra stress: 54% say workload is a defining pressure for in-house teams, while 54% said technology decisions were a defining pressure.
The report, based on a survey of 678 in-house professionals, suggested that AI and technology adoption is widespread but shallow and disjointed.
Almost half (46%) of in-house respondents reported operating within fragmented systems, 48% relied on manual workarounds and 34% experiencing duplicated data across multiple platforms.
The report said: ‘Legal is no longer a support function operating at the edge of the business. It is becoming a strategic part of the engine that drives it, one where technology, data, governance, workflows, and people operate as a coordinated whole.
‘But that shift is exposing a fundamental tension: the function’s remit has expanded, leadership expectations have accelerated, and the architecture underneath was built for a different era, defined by linear workflows, specialist silos, and reactive advisory structures.’
But despite these working pressures, the report said legal teams are seeing tangible benefits from AI adoption, with 59% reporting increased efficiency and productivity. Defined benefits include improved accuracy, reduced errors and enhanced decision-making capabilities.
But nearly one in five respondents (19%) reported that AI has had no measurable impact on their legal team so far. The report said this reflects the reality that many organisations are still in early stages of evaluation, planning, or partial deployment.
Simon Harper, founder of Lawyers on Demand, said the most successful teams will be those that find the right balance of bringing AI and other tech systems together while strengthening governance and creating flexible workplace structures.
He added: ‘In-house teams are redefining their mandate faster and more decisively than ever. This expanded mandate requires legal teams to simultaneously reflect on the context of their functions whilst managing ever-increasing workloads. This is not an easy combination.’
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