Navigating the Legal AI Ecosystem: Tools, Trends, and Adoption

In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the legal industry have gone from being something primarily for innovators and trailblazers to becoming increasingly common for law firms of all sizes. According to our latest Legal Trends Report, 79% of legal professionals use AI in some capacity in their practice, and 84% of firms believe that AI usage will grow over the next year. 

Not surprisingly, as AI adoption accelerates, the legal AI ecosystem is expanding just as rapidly. Many AI-powered solutions now assist lawyers with a wide range of tasks—from automating operational workflows to drafting and analyzing legal documents to streamlining e-discovery and beyond. 

With new solutions emerging constantly, these tools are becoming more accessible, accurate, and efficient. This means it’s easier than ever for law firms to integrate AI solutions into daily workflows and transform their work.

However, with so many available solutions, it’s not always easy to determine which specific types of tools (or which level of AI adoption) would best fit your firm’s needs. The overwhelming number of potential options can leave some firms at risk of falling behind due to inaction.

Here, we break down today’s legal AI ecosystem—exploring the types of AI tools currently available, what they can help with, and how to use them to your firm’s advantage.

Want to explore the power of AI right from your case management platform? Clio Duo, Clio’s cutting-edge AI solution, is built within Clio Manage’s case management platform— seamlessly transforming the way your firm works, accelerating your case and client work, and more. Book a demo today.

The legal AI ecosystem

With the sheer number of AI options for lawyers rapidly rising, the legal AI ecosystem has evolved into an increasingly complex and challenging landscape. This is where many law firms fall into the common trap of trying to implement them all at once.

While it may be tempting to go from low or no AI usage to adopting every AI tool you can find to keep up, rushing to implement them all may lead to more problems than solutions.

First, it’s crucial to understand the ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in law and how to use tools responsibly. AI tools come with risks—such as bias and discrimination, hallucinations, data privacy concerns, and transparency issues—that legal professionals must understand and carefully navigate.

Next, it’s important to understand what an AI tool can do before you rush to use it. Rather than adopting every tool that sounds impressive, it’s a good idea to start small with AI tools that address specific challenges and then strategically build up your firm’s use of AI.

With this in mind, consider the following levels of AI adoption for law firms:

• Level 1: Your firm currently uses no tools or relies on server-based software only.
• Level 2: Your firm currently uses some basic cloud-based tools, but some systems are disconnected and not integrated.
• Level 3: Your firm is fully cloud-based with a central legal practice management solution for all firm data.
• Level 4: Your firm has started to automate processes using technology in Level 3, but these processes still require significant human input.
• Level 5: Your firm leverages AI within a centralized system using technology in Level 3 to automate tasks and enhance decision-making.

If you’re unsure where to start with AI at your law firm, consider where your firm currently stands within the legal AI ecosystem based on the list above, and then gradually adopt specific tools that make sense for your firm and grow from there as you learn the AI ropes.

Breaking down legal AI tools by category

As more AI solutions emerge, knowing where to start with AI in your law firm can be overwhelming. While the list below isn’t exhaustive, it outlines key categories of legal AI tools that aim to reduce—or even eliminate—the repetitive work often faced by law firms in private practice.

Law firm operations

Law firm operations are all about repetitive, time-consuming internal processes—ideal candidates for automation. Using AI to automate these processes allows firms to save time, improve efficiency, and make it easier to focus on high-value tasks.

However, as data security is paramount for firms handling sensitive client data, it’s also essential to find legal AI tools that not only leverage data to enhance existing workflows—but also emphasize security and mitigate risk.

Clio Duo fits this bill.

Powered by generative AI technology that operates within Clio’s high security standards, Clio Duo can automate routine tasks throughout the case management journey from client communication to time tracking and calendaring. Also, because it’s built within Clio’s leading practice management software, Clio Duo allows you to seamlessly delegate the creation of tasks, time entries, and calendar events without the distraction of switching between tabs or opening new windows. The result is smarter case management for your law firm, harnessing the power of AI.

Unlike third-party AI tools, Clio Duo works within Clio’s trusted environment, which ensures user-inputted data remains protected and is never used to train AI models. This means your firm can leverage the power of AI for intelligent, more efficient case management—without compromising confidentiality.

Legal research 

Legal research is essential to the practice of law, but it’s notoriously time-consuming and prone to human error, making it a prime area for legal AI tools to streamline. However, as some lawyers have learned the hard way, using generic and non-legal-specific AI tools for legal research increases the risk of AI hallucinations—which can lead to inaccurate citations and potential ethical issues.

As a result, legal-specific AI solutions are crucial for legal research, not only to enhance efficiency but also to help ensure greater accuracy. In fact, according to the 2024 Legal Trends Report, legal research platforms are the top legal-specific AI-powered solutions in the legal industry.

AI-powered legal research tools like Lexis+ AI, Westlaw Precision, and Harvey (which is built on a version of Open.AI’s GPT AI but tailored to legal-specific needs) enable firms to quickly access legal research databases, predict case outcomes, and identify relevant case law, statutes, and precedents with speed and accuracy.

E-discovery 

Conducting e-discovery can be tedious—manually sifting through large amounts of digital files to find the relevant information needed for a legal case or investigation can be labor-intensive and, accordingly, costly.

By automating e-discovery tasks like document review and document categorization, AI-powered e-discovery tools like Logikcull can improve search accuracy and streamline the process. Logikcull also integrates with Clio’s practice management software, allowing users to automatically “mirror” their Clio matters into Logikcull, which means you can import discovery documents associated with Clio cases in seconds.

Client service AI

AI-powered tools can help law firms be more responsive and offer better service to clients without taking up staff’s administrative time. 

AI chatbots can be used on law firm websites to answer routine questions (such as the firm’s business hours) and assist with client intake processes. Tools like Smith.ai can also take care of receptionist services on behalf of law firm staff by using an AI-enabled voice receptionist to answer phone calls, filter out spam, and auto-qualify leads.

Document drafting, analysis, and review 

AI technology can transform how lawyers work with legal documents—streamlining various tasks related to drafting and automatically analyzing legal documents.

Built into Clio Manage, Clio Duo supports routine tasks related to working with legal documents. It can, for example, simplify and accelerate document review by summarizing lengthy documents for quick insights. It can also analyze documents and extract key details—enabling more precise and informed decision-making.

Genie AI uses AI to streamline legal document drafting, for example, while CoCounsel Core facilitates quick and efficient AI-powered document review. Harvey AI can help with document comparison, translation, and more. NetDocuments’ ndMAX Legal AI Assistant allows you to ask questions conversationally and get informational answers based on your documents. 

Tools like Diligen, Luminance Diligence, and Spellbook use AI to assist with tasks related to contract review.

Practice area-specific AI tools 

There may also be AI solutions tailored to solve a need in your specific practice area.

For example, Steno, which integrates with Clio, offers an AI-powered solution that can provide tailored summaries of case transcripts for litigators. 

Eve, which connects with Clio Manage to support your matters, uses legal AI to streamline tasks and accelerate casework from intake to litigation for plaintiff law firms.

For personal injury lawyers, another Clio integration, EvenUp, turns medical documents and case files into AI-driven demand packages.

Non-legal generative AI tools 

Law firms may also use generative AI tools to boost productivity and assist with various administrative and non-legal tasks, such as marketing content creation, drafting emails, and brainstorming ideas.

Some popular generative AI tools can fit this purpose, including ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. These tools generate content and answer questions based on user prompts, making them valuable for assisting with general business tasks.

However, it’s important to note that while these generative AI tools can be useful—and often free—they are not designed for legal-industry use and are not connected to the firm’s data or practice management system. This means they lack the legal context to help firms with specialized legal tasks like document analysis, workflow automation, or case-specific legal document drafting. 

And, beyond just being less efficient or unreliable for legal work, using non-legal AI tools for legal tasks can lead lawyers to make serious mistakes with ethical and professional consequences.

Where Clio Duo fits in the legal AI ecosystem

Whether your firm is just starting to explore the legal AIecosystem or is already leveraging a few AI tools, it’s important to consider how a potential new AI tool will work with your firm’s practice management software. Solutions that integrate with your existing workflows and tech stack make adoption smooth and unlock additional efficiency—allowing you to focus more time on high-value work. 

Take Clio’s legal AI: Clio Duo. 

Made specifically to transform the way legal work gets done within your case management software, Clio Duo helps accelerate your case and client work—helping you work smarter. As your dynamic AI-powered partner, Clio Duo is always there, ready to help you make the most of your work day.

Clio Duo’s AI offers numerous benefits, including:

• Data privacy and security. One of the biggest risks of using AI tools for lawyers is the potential to enter sensitive information and inadvertently compromise client data and confidentiality, but Clio Duo operates securely within Clio Manage’s case management platform using only its data. Because no AI models are trained on your data and every action taken is tracked by a secure event log, you can use Clio Duo’s AI with full data safety and privacy.
• Effortless task automation. Clio Duo automates time-consuming routine tasks—like retrieving case or client information, generating matter summaries, creating tasks, scheduling calendar events, adding time entries, and drafting responses—all without interrupting your current workflow. It handles these routine tasks for you, allowing you to stay focused on more important work.
• Accessing information instantly. Instead of digging through documents to find what you need, Clio Duo pulls the important information you’re looking for from your documents and summarizes complex documents—transforming information into actionable insights for better decision-making to help move your cases forward.
• Prioritizing where you focus your time. Clio Duo’s smart recommendations proactively prioritize key cases and tasks that need your immediate attention, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks and helping you manage your time more effectively.
• Getting back to clients faster. Clio Duo’s AI suggests tailored responses when communicating to clients via text messages or emails—reducing the mental load of trying to figure out what to write and helping you respond to clients more promptly.

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What changes are firms that adopt legal AI seeing?

Already, law firms are seeing transformative changes from implementing legal AI tools. As our latest Legal Trends Report found, 54% of legal professionals perceive that AI saves them time and increases efficiency, while 36% perceive that it improves the quality of their work.

Clio Duo users have shared how using Clio Duo’s AI tools boosted efficiency and productivity, helping them achieve more quality work in less time and saving them up to five hours per week.

“It could save as much as two hours. For me as a mediator, I don’t get paid for the work I do before the mediation starts and I prefer to be prepared. Now, 10 minutes before the mediation, I do a quick Duo review and can get started”, says Mechelle Woznicki, Attorney at Woznicki Law LLC

Similarly, Melissa Oosterhof, Attorney at Oosterhof Law Office, PLLC shares, “With Clio Duo, I can get the data I need instantly just by asking a question. I don’t have to run reports or filter through custom fields anymore, which saves me time and helps me be more productive!”

Final thoughts on the legal AI ecosystem

The legal AI ecosystem is complex and rapidly evolving, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be intimidating. By viewing emerging AI tools as exciting opportunities to streamline operations and delegate routine tasks to technology, you can free up more time for the important legal work that only you can do.

The key is to stay informed and adopt AI at a pace that makes sense for your firm. No matter where you are in your firm’s AI journey today, remember that any firm can enter the legal AI system at the right level for them. From there, it’s just a matter of strategically adding the right tools to maximize your firm’s potential.

Curious about how Clio Duo can accelerate your case and client work and help you work smarter? See how it works and book your demo today.