Which Legal Tasks Will AI Help with Most Over the Next Five Years? 

Many legal teams are facing a familiar challenge. The volume of contracts, compliance requirements, research requests, and documentation continues to grow, but the number of hours in the day hasn’t changed.  

Attorneys are expected to support more business initiatives, respond more quickly, and navigate increasingly complex regulatory environments—all while maintaining the accuracy, judgment, and trust that legal work demands. 

As organizations look for ways to help legal teams manage growing workloads, artificial intelligence has become a growing part of the conversation. 

That interest is reflected across the legal industry. According to the Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey, legal organizations continue to increase their focus on AI and emerging technologies as they look for ways to improve productivity, manage growing workloads, and better serve their organizations. 

But after the initial excitement around AI, a more practical question emerges. 

Where Can AI Genuinely Help? 

The organizations that benefit most from AI are unlikely to be the ones that automate the most legal work. They’re more likely to be the ones that thoughtfully identify where their teams spend time on repetitive tasks, searching for information, reviewing documents, and managing administrative responsibilities that pull attention away from legal analysis and decision-making. 

“One pattern we’re seeing across industries is that organizations become excited about AI capabilities before they’ve clearly identified the problem they’re trying to solve,” says Roman Shraga, Chief Technology Officer at Klik Solutions. “The most successful initiatives start with a business challenge, not a technology conversation.” 

For legal leaders, that means looking beyond the tools themselves and focusing on how work actually gets done. 

So, which legal tasks will AI help with most over the next five years? More importantly, where can it help legal professionals spend less time on repetitive processes and more time applying their experience and judgment? 

The Opportunity Isn’t About Replacing Attorneys 

Many discussions about AI begin with automation. In our experience, legal leaders are asking a different question. How can we help experienced attorneys spend less time on administrative work and more time advising the business? 

Most legal professionals didn’t enter the field because they wanted to spend hours comparing versions of the same contract, tracking down information stored in multiple locations, or manually reviewing documents that follow similar patterns. 

Yet those tasks often consume more time than anyone would like. A legal leader recently described spending nearly an entire afternoon searching for contract language that had already been reviewed and approved previously. Nothing about the task required legal expertise. It simply required finding the right information. 

Experiences like this are one reason AI has generated so much interest within legal departments. The goal isn’t to replace expertise. It’s to reduce the time spent searching for information that already exists. 

With that in mind, several legal functions stand out as areas where AI is likely to provide meaningful support. 

Contract Review and Risk Identification 

Contract review remains one of the most time-intensive responsibilities for many legal teams. 

Whether reviewing vendor agreements, employment contracts, partnership agreements, or client documents, attorneys often spend considerable time searching for inconsistencies, identifying potential risks, and comparing language against organizational standards. 

AI can help by: 

• Comparing agreements against approved templates. 

• Identifying unusual contract language. 

• Flagging potential compliance concerns. 

• Summarizing lengthy agreements. 

• Highlighting missing provisions. 

The benefit isn’t simply speed. True benefit lies in helping legal professionals spend less time searching for issues and more time evaluating them. 

“The greatest value comes when AI helps professionals find what matters faster,” says Shraga. “The responsibility for evaluating risk, understanding context, and making decisions still belongs to people.” 

The legal judgment behind a contract remains just as important as ever. AI may simply help attorneys arrive at that judgment more efficiently. 

Legal Research and Knowledge Discovery 

Most legal professionals have experienced a situation where they know the information exists. They just can’t find it quickly. 

Legal research often requires reviewing large collections of case law, statutes, regulations, organizational policies, and historical documentation before arriving at a recommendation. 

AI is particularly effective in situations like these. Over the next several years, legal teams may increasingly use AI to: 

• Organize large collections of legal information. 

• Improve access to institutional knowledge. 

• Surface relevant information more quickly. 

• Summarize research findings. 

• Identify related precedents. 
   

The challenge is rarely a lack of expertise. More often, it’s the time required to locate, review, and connect information spread across multiple sources. 

“Technology can process information at incredible speed,” says Shraga. “What it can’t do is understand the business context, organizational priorities, and nuanced considerations that influence legal decision-making.” 

That’s where attorneys continue to provide value that technology cannot replicate. 

Compliance Monitoring and Regulatory Awareness 

For many organizations, staying current with regulatory changes has become increasingly difficult. New requirements emerge. Existing regulations evolve. Industry expectations continue to shift. 

Legal and compliance teams often spend significant time monitoring changes and determining what they mean for the organization. 

AI may help by: 

Identifying emerging compliance requirements  

Supporting audit readiness efforts  

Monitoring regulatory updates 

Tracking policy changes 

Highlighting potential gaps 

The benefit isn’t just reducing workload. It’s helping organizations avoid being caught off guard. When leadership teams have better visibility into changing requirements, they can make decisions with greater confidence and fewer surprises. 

 
E-Discovery and Litigation Support 

Litigation often requires reviewing enormous volumes of emails, documents, communications, and digital records. The challenge is finding the information that matters. 

 
AI can help organize documents, identify patterns, prioritize review efforts, and surface potentially relevant materials more efficiently. This allows legal teams to spend less time sorting through data and more time preparing their case. 

As with other applications of AI, success depends on maintaining strong oversight. Technology can assist with discovery. Legal professionals remain responsible for interpretation, strategy, and decision-making. 

Document Drafting and Workflow Support 

Many legal documents follow established formats and repeatable structures. This makes them good candidates for AI-assisted drafting. 

Examples may include: 

• Standard legal correspondence.  

• Non-disclosure agreements. 

• Regulatory documentation. 

• Employment agreements. 

• Discovery requests. 

• Internal policies. 

Rather than beginning with a blank page, attorneys can use AI-generated drafts as a starting point. The goal isn’t to remove attorneys from the process. The goal is to reduce the time spent creating routine documentation so legal professionals can devote more attention to the issues that require deeper analysis and discussion. 

The Challenge Isn’t Technology Adoption 

One observation we’ve seen repeatedly is that organizations rarely struggle with the technology itself. More often, they struggle with deciding where technology belongs in a process. 

Should AI provide recommendations or final answers? 

Should it assist with review or make decisions? 

Where should human oversight begin and end? 

These questions often determine the success of an AI initiative more than the technology itself. 

“Most organizations don’t have a technology problem,” says Shraga. “They have a decision-making problem. The real challenge is determining where AI can assist and where human judgment should remain firmly in control.” 

For legal leaders, answering those questions early can help establish the governance and accountability needed to use AI responsibly. 

What AI Won’t Replace 

Whenever AI enters the conversation, attention often turns to what technology can do. The more important question may be what it cannot do. 

While AI can assist with research, document review, and administrative tasks, it cannot replace the human qualities that define effective legal counsel.  

Strategic legal judgment requires experience, context, and the ability to navigate complex situations where there is rarely a single right answer.  

Successful negotiation depends on understanding people, motivations, and nuances that technology cannot fully interpret.  

Relationship building, ethical decision-making, risk balancing, and strong advocacy all rely on trust, empathy, and professional discretion.  

Equally important is the ability to understand a client’s broader business context and align legal guidance with their goals.  

These are the areas where skilled legal professionals continue to provide irreplaceable value. 

“I’ve never met a legal team that asked for more work,” says Shraga. “What I hear instead is that they’re trying to keep up with growing demands while maintaining the same level of care and attention to detail. That’s where AI has the potential to help.” 

The legal profession isn’t defined by documents alone. It’s defined by the expertise behind them. 

A Practical Way to Evaluate AI Opportunities 

Many legal leaders feel pressure to develop an AI strategy immediately. A better place to start may be asking a few practical questions. 

• Where does time quietly disappear each week? 

• Where are attorneys repeatedly reviewing similar information? 

• Where are people spending hours searching for documents, language, or historical information? 

• Where are delays occurring because there is simply too much information to review efficiently? 

The answers often reveal where AI may provide the greatest value. Organizations don’t need to automate everything. They simply need to identify the areas where technology can help people work more effectively. 

A Pattern Worth Your Attention  

One observation continues to surface across nearly every AI conversation. Organizations often spend more time evaluating what an AI platform can do than evaluating where their data goes once they begin using it. 

For legal organizations, that imbalance can create unnecessary risk. Contracts, litigation materials, privileged communications, intellectual property, and financial records often represent some of the most sensitive information within an organization. 

Before asking what an AI platform can automate, legal leaders should understand: 

• Whether compliance requirements are being met 

• What governance controls exist 

• How information is stored 

• How data is protected 

• Who can access it 

“The biggest risk isn’t that AI occasionally produces an incorrect answer,” says Shraga. “The bigger risk is implementing AI without the governance, security, and oversight needed to use it responsibly.” 

Organizations should approach AI with the same discipline they apply to any other critical business system. 

Looking Ahead 

There’s a common assumption that AI will make expertise less important. We believe the opposite may be true. As technology becomes better at processing information, organizing data, and identifying patterns, the ability to apply judgment, provide context, build trust, and guide decisions becomes even more valuable. 

Five years from now, the most successful legal organizations may not be the ones that rely on AI the most. They may be the ones that use it thoughtfully while continuing to invest in the people whose expertise drives the organization forward. 

Klik Solutions can evaluate emerging technologies through both a technology and cybersecurity lens. Successful AI adoption isn’t simply about selecting the right tools. It requires understanding how those tools fit within existing processes, governance requirements, security expectations, and business goals. 

Technology can help manage information. People create understanding, and in the legal profession, that distinction will continue to matter. 

 
Frequently Asked Questions