CHICAGO — AI has transformed not only how lawyers work individually, but the nature of the law firm-client relationship. For law firms, AI has impacted everything from time it takes to complete work, potential billing options, and even the type of advice given to clients. And firm lawyers also may not realize that clients aren’t necessarily thinking about AI in the same way that they are.

At the Thomson Reuters Institute’s recent 2026 Future of AI & Technology Forum, this changing dynamic was front and center in several panels and group discussions.

“I very rarely do legal work anymore. I don't sit around and write briefs and research cases,” says Eric Berg, VP, Chief Compliance Officer and Associate General Counsel at IDEX Corporation. “And so this idea of AI being useful for me to write a brief, it's a non-starter with what I do. When I look at AI, I'm hiring the law firm to write the brief. I'm assuming some things on that side, and I'm hoping they're getting them right.”

This raises the question, then: What do clients want to hear from their law firms with regards to AI in law? At the AI Forum, Berg teamed up with Seth Gastwirth, Global General Counsel for JLL's Work Dynamics business, to offer their thoughts on an answer, in a panel titled, Through the client lens: What clients value in an AI-enabled market.

Over time, they say, client expectations have evolved. It’s no longer pure legal work that they desire; rather, it’s help navigating the margins of the legal world.

The ask has changed

When a corporate legal department does tackle both transactional and litigation work itself, it’s doing so in a much more streamlined fashion, Gastwirth says. Previously, work such as drafting responses, demand letters, and the like would go to outside counsel to save in-house lawyers hours of time.

“And now our internal clients, whenever they're communicating to us what the issue is and they give us the background documents, we're able to upload that into one of our AI tools and within 5 to 10 minutes, and you get a very, very, very solid draft,” Gastwirth explains. “It most likely eliminates the need to use outside counsel on some of those activities in the litigation context and in the dispute context.”

This has changed the dynamic in how clients differentiate one firm from another when making selections. Gastwirth calls client service, counseling, and judgment “the most critical value add” that a firm lawyer can provide, once AI levels the playing field with respect to technical acumen.

“When I've got outside counsel who help me think three, four steps ahead and make recommendations — that's what I value,” he says, adding that there's going to be far fewer distinctions with respect to marking up particular contracts or doing those standard demand letters. "It's really availability, accessibility, and seeing someone put themselves in my shoes [in terms] of what are my concerns, what are my internal stakeholders' concerns — advising me on those items is critically important.”

Client service, counseling, and judgment is “the most critical value add” that a firm lawyer can provide, once AI levels the playing field with respect to technical acumen.

Berg agrees, relaying the story of a matter in which a certain initiative required governmental approval. AI could tell him all about the relevant statutes and regulations, or even the potential compliance issues that could occur. But it took a lawyer to be able to ascertain the political market, and provide the advice that “the winds within that agency are blowing this way, and therefore the submission of this document to this agency at that time with this new appointee is probably going to have an outcome that is a little more over here than it used to be.

“That's what I'm paying him for, right? That's what I want to see,” Berg adds. “Now, does that firm use AI to write NDAs and stuff? Sure it does, but that's the value of humanity going forward. It's that nuance. It's the things in the gray. That's where the real value is.”

No more surprises

When it comes to AI use, there is one key facet that stands above all else: transparency. Both Berg and Gastwirth say they encourage law firms to have needed AI conversation with clients early and often, especially if firms already has begun integrating AI into their internal workflows. This is doubly crucial, Gastwirth adds, given that AI has the chance to dramatically shift how a matter is billed.

“I hate surprises, okay? My clients hate surprises. My finance team hates surprises. My CEO hates surprises. Budgeting process for outside firms is important,” Gastwirth explains. “Now, there are always situations where something changes based on the task at hand that would require a budget to be revisited — that can be explained."

However, he adds, in terms of costs, implementation, and adoption, clients need to know what their firms think the costs are going to be. "Spell it out, share it with me, give me updates in terms of how you're trending against those budgets and those costs. I think that transparency and that clarity is critically important. Otherwise, you lose my trust.”

Berg agrees, but also notes that in the current state of the AI lifecycle, “I'm not assuming I'm going to save any money right now.” Instead, he’s primarily evaluating outside firms’ AI usage in terms of productivity — how it is saving the legal department time.

“I hate surprises, okay? My clients hate surprises. My finance team hates surprises. My CEO hates surprises. Budgeting process for outside firms is important."

“If I'm hiring a law firm or if I'm hiring a vendor, and they're saying we have our own proprietary AI that's going to do all the document review and we'll be done by this afternoon, that's what I want to hear,” Berg says. “I'm comfortable paying the same rates to that firm, but I want that document review done in one-one-hundredth of the time that it used to take.”

Of course, he acknowledges that finding the ROI of AI within knowledge work is difficult, and he draws a distinction between this type of AI and physical AI, in which it's easier to find a specific trait to quantify (such as check-valve defect rates). As a result, he evaluates outside firm performance based on outcomes. And to him, the ultimate use of AI by outside counsel is one that allows the company more time to conduct further business.

“Let's use an example," Berg explains. "I have this huge investigation at a company, and that investigation normally takes eight months. My expectation, if I'm hiring an outside law firm, is that an investigation now takes two months.”

However, he adds, firms have to understand what the client is trying to do as a company. "I'm trying to grow myself. I can't acquire five new companies when I have this eight-month sprawling investigation that's bringing in hundreds of employees. If I can cut that investigation down to two months, maybe now I can buy four companies.

"If a law firm or provider is more productive in one area, that frees up time for a company or an institution to do other things with that time," Berg says. "And then, that is going to be this virtuous cycle of come back.”

The panel conceded that maybe many outside law firms aren’t there yet with their clients. However, panelists say they believe AI can change firm-client relationships in the near future.

“I see it as very glass half full," Berg adds.

You can read the 2026 Future of AI & Technology Forum executive summary for session recaps and key insights from the day