More Legal Work, Same Team, Zero Headcount Added
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Key Takeaway
In-house legal teams are expanding their output without expanding headcount – at Prosus, the same team now handles significantly more work by routing repetitive queries and fragmented IP data through AI, freeing lawyers for the decisions that actually require judgment. The return came from auditing existing workflows first, then targeting AI at high-volume, low-judgment tasks like contract triage, compliance checks, and Q&A deflection – not from deploying technology broadly and hoping for efficiency. Senior leaders evaluating legal AI budgets should note that the math only works when AI replaces low-value process steps, not people, and that trust in outputs remains dangerously low across the industry, making human oversight a cost of doing this right, not an optional add-on.
In-house legal teams are expanding their output without expanding headcount – at Prosus, the same team now handles significantly more work by routing repetitive queries and fragmented IP data through AI, freeing lawyers for the decisions that actually require judgment. The return came from auditing existing workflows first, then targeting AI at high-volume, low-judgment tasks like contract triage, compliance checks, and Q&A deflection – not from deploying technology broadly and hoping for efficiency. Senior leaders evaluating legal AI budgets should note that the math only works when AI replaces low-value process steps, not people, and that trust in outputs remains dangerously low across the industry, making human oversight a cost of doing this right, not an optional add-on.
Originally reported by Financial Times Technology. Read the full story here.
