How SME law firms can adopt AI without the overwhelm: Insights from two innovation leaders
Many SME firms struggle with fragmented tools and limited implementation capacity. What strategies have you found most effective in helping a busy SME firm adopt technology without overwhelming lawyers or support teams?
Chris George, Partner & Head of Innovation, EMW Law:
“There will always be a balance to be had when selecting legal technology products: those which integrate in more of the systems that lawyers ‘live in’ on a daily basis will, most likely, require more effort to implement. These types of systems encourage adoption as they are constantly in sight and in mind so users don’t need as many reminders to include them into their daily routines and workflows. However, there are plenty of really useful systems that are web based or have limited integrations into primary products, such as Microsoft Word. These are much easier to set up and generally only need an email address to allocate a licence and get people up and running. Tech providers are also now much more willing to provide training sessions and help users in the initial stages (after all, adoption of the product is in their interests) so firms should take advantage of these and allow the experts to help upskill people on their platforms.”
Photo: Chris George
Noah Milton, Director of AI, Fletchers Solicitors:
“With so many AI tools making similar claims, the key is to test them on real use cases that matter to your firm (providers should facilitate trials for free). Successful adoption then comes down to finding your natural superusers – the technology enthusiasts on your team. Encourage them to experiment, discover what works, and then give them a platform to share their wins with colleagues, little and often. Once there’s precedent for using new tech in daily work, others might need a gentle push to try it themselves, but we’ve found they’ll adapt quickly if there’s an enthusiastic tech culture supporting them.”
What’s one piece of technology you think every SME firm should consider in 2026 and why?
Noah Milton, Director of AI, Fletchers Solicitors:
“This is tough because there are so many exciting tools available right now. However, I think most lawyers would benefit from getting familiar with the base Large Language Models (LLMs) from frontier AI labs: ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Their enterprise offerings might not yet provide the data security and residency you need, but understanding what these foundation models can do helps you assess other AI tools more critically. You’ll know what’s impressive because of the specific tool versus what’s impressive simply because the underlying LLM is strong. And I’m confident these models will continue improving significantly throughout 2026.”
Photo: Noah Milton
Chris George, Partner & Head of Innovation, EMW Law:
“I think this will vary from firm to firm but I would strongly encourage the adoption of some form of AI technology if a firm hasn’t yet taken the plunge. The particular product will depend upon the broader pain points of the organisation. For example, if day-to-day email management, meeting follow-up and general administration is an issue, then a more generic product such as Microsoft Copilot would be a good bet. If drafting and negotiation of documents is a challenge across a number of lawyers within the firm then a more legally-grounded system such as Bryter, Harvey or Thomson Reuter’s CoCounsel might be a better option. For a firm that has a particularly heavy workflow in a certain sector then more of a point solution, such as Orbital Copilot for real estate might prove more helpful. We have a number of these systems within our business and what has been really interesting has been putting the same piece of work or prompt into lots of different systems and comparing the output. The more specific the use case, the better the point solutions tend to perform, but they all do a reasonable job of summarising documents, producing emails and thought leadership content, which allows users to start to familiarise themselves with the concepts of prompting and to begin to develop the concept of incorporating an AI ‘assistant’ into their daily routines. Half the battle with the adoption of AI is getting people started, demonstrating some quick ‘easy wins’ and allowing them to develop their own curiosity with the technology. The sooner this starts to happen within a business, the quicker the enthusiasm builds and you’ll be on your AI journey before you know it!”
