Why 80% of legal AI government investments fail to deliver – Thomson Reuters Legal Solutions
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How government legal departments can avoid the common pitfalls that turn promising AI initiatives into expensive experiments.
Highlights
The numbers tell a sobering story. While 80% of law firm professionals expect AI to have a high or transformative impact within five years, only 22% have a visible AI strategy, and 30% admit they’re moving too slowly. For government legal departments, this gap between expectation and execution represents both a warning and an opportunity.
The stakes are particularly high in the public sector, where every dollar spent must demonstrate clear value to taxpayers, and where the volume of legal work—from FOIA requests to regulatory compliance—continues to grow faster than budgets.
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Four critical success factors most teams miss
The $20 billion opportunity
Our research into successful AI implementations reveals that the difference between transformative results and expensive disappointments comes down to four strategic elements that most organizations either overlook or execute poorly.
The most successful government legal departments don’t start with AI tools—they start with pain points. “AI investments only deliver results when they are tied to priorities and championed by leaders,” according to recent implementation studies.
High-impact starting points for government teams typically include:
The key insight: Sequencing builds momentum. Beginning with low-risk pilots in areas like summarization or document review creates early success stories that build confidence for broader rollout into more complex workflows.
Here’s what separates successful implementations from failed experiments: trust is the currency of adoption. Government lawyers can’t put their names on work they don’t believe is accurate, ethical, or secure.
The most common barriers to AI investment in legal departments are:
Professional-grade AI governance addresses these concerns through:
Not all AI tools are created equal. The distinction between public tools and professional-grade AI can make or break your ROI. Public tools are built for broad use, often without safeguards for confidentiality, bias, or privilege. Professional-grade AI is industry-specific, built to meet the standards of regulated professions, including strict data security, compliance, and explainability requirements.
For government legal departments, this distinction is critical. Professional-grade solutions like CoCounsel Legal are designed specifically for legal workflows, trained on authoritative legal content, and built with the governance frameworks that government environments require.
The content advantage matters when AI is grounded in authoritative legal sources instead of generic internet material, giving legal professionals reliable results they can trust in their work.
“AI ROI depends on people, not just tools,” and measuring that human impact requires both hard and soft metrics.
Hard ROI includes:
Soft ROI reflects:
The measurement framework that works is the one that shows how people are actually using AI—whether it’s becoming part of everyday workflows or still sitting with early adopters. Looking at things like how often it’s used and how widely it spreads across practice areas gives you an early read on whether it’ll deliver long‑term ROI.
Four strategies for legal leaders to ensure AI delivers lasting value
Research estimates that broad adoption could save the US legal industry $20 billion annually—the equivalent of 240 hours per user. For government legal departments operating under budget constraints and growing workloads, this represents a transformative opportunity.
But realizing this potential requires more than just buying AI tools. It requires a strategic approach that addresses the four critical success factors: alignment with goals, building trust through governance, choosing professional-grade solutions, and measuring what matters.
The window for competitive advantage is still open, but it’s narrowing. Government legal departments that develop clear AI strategies now will establish operational leadership, while those that wait risk falling behind in efficiency, service delivery, and cost management.
Take a step further with the full white paper, “Maximizing your AI investment: Four strategies for legal leaders to ensure AI delivers lasting value.” It walks through practical frameworks, governance tips, and ROI tools that forward‑thinking government legal teams are already putting to work.
Curious how this looks in practice? Book a customized CoCounsel Legal demo and see how government legal teams are using AI to streamline document review, legal research, and compliance work—with real results to show for it.
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