Legal industry experts discuss the state of AI during a workshop at Legalweek 2026. (Steven Lerner | Law360)
Danielle Benecke, global head of applied AI at Baker McKenzie, said in the panel that there is a growing sense that the industry may have "entered the AI slop phase in legal," where AI tools are making legal analysis plentiful. AI slop refers to low-quality, mass-produced AI content.
Benecke noted that more analysis doesn't necessarily mean legal teams move faster.
"AI is making legal analysis abundant, but judgment and accountability remain scarce," Benecke said.
And as tools that can produce AI analysis grow, so do concerns about the future of legal jobs.
Oliver Roberts, co-director of the WashU Law AI Collaborative, said during Monday's panel that he expects "AI to replace attorneys in the future" due to the rapid improvements of the AI models.
Benecke said the current state of AI in legal is that systems can increasingly produce good results, moving the constraint from lack of access to AI to new questions about where to deploy and steer it. And although there are still instances of AI producing inaccurate results, Benecke said 2026 will be the year when accountability and responsibility become more important.
The experts on the panel agreed that AI is not overhyped and that avoiding AI in a data-heavy matter could be a risk because the technology is good. Roberts said that although there's an increased demand from clients for firms to use AI, firms shouldn't just adopt AI for the sake of doing so.
Experts also discussed the potential impact of AI on the billable hour. Ilona Logvinova, the chief AI officer at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, said the billable hour isn't going anywhere, but it might evolve from a measure of time to a measure of value for the client. Zeynep Ersin, the chief innovation and strategic design officer at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, said firms need to have the "value conversation" about aligning billing with client value.
AI could also change the relationship between legal departments and outside counsel. Logvinova said law firms traditionally are unyielding in changing their tools to match the needs of clients. She said firms should change their approach by being more flexible in the types of tools used, similar to consultants.
Benecke said legal departments are looking for AI experts internally and externally. Roberts said the long-term play is for in-house teams to bring more work internally with AI if it can save them costs.
As for the future of AI in legal, Logvinova predicted a rise in AI agents capable of communicating with each other, which could force firms to rethink their architecture. Benecke said the next period of legal AI will be defined by who is building the most trusted workflows.
--Editing by Patrick Reagan.
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