A practical guide to choosing the right AI tools for your law firm: How to Choose the Right AI Vendor

Want to avoid months of wasted time and pick the right AI solution? Here’s what we learned.

For buyers:

• Focus on legal competence, not just speed: Test whether the AI truly understands complex legal concepts, uses correct terminology, and handles nuanced queries. These matter more than response time.
• Separate drafting tests: Check performance with and without templates. The gap is huge, template-based drafting often hides weaknesses.
• Include occasional users: Don’t rely only on power users. They tend to give inflated scores. Occasional users reveal the real baseline experience.
• Build role-specific criteria: Partners, associates, and trainees value different things. Tailor your evaluation to reflect those priorities.
• Validate vendor claims: Mirror your RFP questions in user surveys to see if promises match reality.

For vendors:

• Lead with legal competence, not speed: Lawyers assume AI will be fast. They choose products that demonstrate genuine understanding of legal complexity and terminology.
• Be honest about drafting limitations: Template-based drafting and full generative drafting. Users spot this gap quickly, so set expectations clearly.
• Invest in disputes capabilities: Disputes lawyers rated products lower overall. This is an underserved market with big potential for differentiation.
• Show your work: Citation quality and transparency build trust far more than response speed. Products that explain reasoning and provide sources earn preference.

In summary, structured, comparative assessments with clear methodology generate better data than serial pilots with ambiguous outcomes. The gap between vendor claims and user experience is measurable. Buyers who don’t measure it are making decisions on insufficient evidence.

Our framework accelerates decisions and drives adoption. 

The full report can be found here:  A practical guide to choosing the right AI tools for your firm