The panel discussion, moderated by Centre for the Future of the Legal Profession senior research associate Vicki McNamara, included speakers Wotton + Kearney partner Sian Gilbert, UNSW School of Marketing Professor Nitika Garg, and director of PWC Australia and legal business solutions and adjunct associate professor at UNSW faculty of law and justice Peter Dombkins.

In terms of current trends in pricing that she’s seeing in the legal profession, Gilbert said that from a private practice view, technology is “having a huge impact on how we’re pricing our offerings to our clients”.

“In terms of current models, in pricing, I would say there’s increased pressure for fixed-fee pricing models. That’s something that’s very attractive now to our clients, and something that we can offer in some scenarios, particularly being in the insurance sector, and particularly being in litigation practice,” she said.

“But I’d also say that the introduction of AI technology creates a perception that you’re therefore spending less time, or that we are even more efficient than we have to be. I’m not sure that that’s actually the case. And I’m not sure that we’ve yet got to the stage in the legal industry that we’ve grappled adequately with those kinds of issues in terms of pricing models.”

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Gilbert also sees a change in how client expectations are influencing law firms’ decisions to invest in new technology, too.

“There’s certainly an expectation that to be at the forefront of legal services, then you should be investing significantly in technology. I would also say that the most significant expectation is the verification processes and security. Obviously, if you are using an AI platform. You have to be extremely careful about cyber security, and the verification of information and documentation is critical. And of course, we’ve seen law firms being subject to leaks and data breaches,” she said.

“So I think the expectation overwhelmingly in this space from clients is that you are absolutely on top of cyber security. It’s critical, and we’ve seen the fallout in some firms where that hasn’t been the case. So I think that’s really important. And then, on the other side, I have some clients in the AI space, and they are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that provisions around confidentiality around safeguarding information are at the forefront of their contractual relationships with their employees. So it’s creating quite a heavy burden.”

Accurate pricing and “fair service delivery” can also raise issues around interacting with corporate clients compared to individual clients, according to the panel, with many individual clients drawing the conclusion that law firms using tech should have lower prices as they are more efficient.

In fact, Dombkins said that recent research showed that clients would be comfortable using lawyers who use AI if it allowed them more time to work on their matter.

“There was a piece of research done by Clear, practice management software, where they were asking would clients be comfortable hiring lawyers if they used AI, and the responses were as you’d expect. Yes, if the AI was reliable. If the AI made the legal services more affordable. But the interesting one is if the lawyer could put more time on my matter,” he said.

“So, it wasn’t just OK, so they’ve saved time drafting. Don’t spend time drafting. Use AI, then spend more of your time value-adding to my matter. Don’t just be more efficient and move on to someone else’s matter. Spend more time with me and understand my business and my risks. So, it’s still the same amount of time devoted to the matter. But it’s just apportioned somewhat differently.”

As such, McNamara added that bringing “human skills” into using AI within legal practice remained important – however, Garg noted that consumers tend to trust AI a little more than humans and have a “common positivity bias” towards new technologies in general in specific industries.

“When people perceive an area as more cognitive rather than emotional, more data-driven, more computational or complex in analyses, they tend to trust the technology a little bit more than humans, just because they feel like we are limited in processing, whereas technology is limitless. And so that sort of bias continues.

“But it is so important to understand that technology is not foolproof, right? And we see this in academia as well, with students using AI, and there are all kinds of problems,” Garg said.

There are some issues that are specific to the domain – law, for example – but also issues specific to different types of consumers.

“Generally, Gen Z’s are really quick to jump on this, because supposedly, they are more open to innovative technology. They are sort of open to trying new things right now, especially they’re younger, but it depends on individual consumers as well,” Garg said.

“If you are attracted to new things. You know we differ in our tendencies. You will rely on this sort of technology a little bit more than, let’s say, other consumers. I think we are still just sort of scraping the tip of the iceberg here. But there are so many more factors that can impact how people view and perceive the technology and respond to it.”

But while the client experience remains important for law firms, the employee experience should also be a priority – as Dombkins added that “employers are discovering that critical moments of a client interaction must still remain human”.

“There are certain elements where not just the feeling of being heard, but actually being heard by a human, may be still quite important in that client journey. But more directly under terms of the impact of employees and making sure that they themselves have also gained the relevant learning, or students or junior lawyers have gained the relevant learning, experience, and knowledge transfer that they need by going through these processes. Ultimately, your employees are your brand ambassadors,” he said.

“When employees are more empowered and more engaged about the work, guess what, they orchestrate more memorable customer experiences. They care more; they know more about the product. And it goes back to an underlying principle of empathy. So, there’s a definite shift towards making sure that your employees have the ability, the knowledge, the skills, the training in the product, or whatever business service you’re doing, to deliver a good service.”