By Ray Meiring, CEO of QorusDocs. QorusDocs were finalists in the ‘Best Use of AI in Legal Tech‘ category at The 2025 A.I. Awards.
Artificial intelligence isn’t just creeping into legal marketing – it’s rapidly becoming the differentiator between firms that win business and those that stall out.
Clients expect personalized, on-brand proposals, faster turnaround, and clear evidence of value. The question is no longer if AI should be part of a firm’s business development strategy, but how to adopt it wisely.
According to the 2025 QorusDocs Benchmark Survey, 67% of law firm respondents reported increasing pitch and RFP volume. Many large, global firms handle over 500 pitches per year, translating into thousands of non-billable hours devoted to repetitive, manual tasks. Firms that embrace automation are already seeing measurable improvements in cycle time, quality, and win rates. Others, however, are struggling with fragmented workflows, tool fatigue, and cultural resistance.
This article examines what’s working, what’s not, and where law firms should focus their AI investments to achieve the greatest return.
What’s Working: Real AI Use Cases Delivering Value
Proposal and Pitch Automation
Few business development tasks consume more time than RFPs and pitches – which are also the closest to revenue generation. Research shows that legal teams now take more than nine days on average to complete an RFP response, an increase from six days in 2022, according to the 2025 QorusDocs Benchmark Survey.
Firms that deploy AI in this area are seeing dramatic benefits. Generative AI can auto-populate first drafts, draw on a central content library for the latest attorney bios, case studies, and firm credentials, and apply formatting and branding automatically. Instead of starting from scratch, teams begin with a solid baseline that can be quickly tailored to the client.
A global Am Law 100 firm that implemented proposal automation software reported faster turnaround times, improved collaboration across global offices, and greater consistency in branding.
“We’ve vastly improved the consistency and quality of our pitches and proposals,” one senior executive noted. “Searching for content is easier, productivity has improved, and collaboration with colleagues worldwide has been transformed.”
The results extend beyond efficiency. Faster, higher-quality pitches give firms more capacity to pursue opportunities and improve win rates without additional headcount.
Seamless Integration with Everyday Tools
One of the biggest drivers of adoption is how well AI fits into existing workflows. Business development and marketing teams already live inside platforms like Microsoft 365, CRMs, and knowledge management systems. If AI software requires teams to leave those environments or adds another standalone tool to an already crowded tech stack, adoption suffers.
Firms that succeed with AI prioritize solutions that integrate directly into the systems their teams use every day. This reduces context-switching, eliminates duplicate data entry, and makes automation feel less like a “new platform” and more like a natural extension of existing work. In practical terms, that means AI embedded where documents are drafted, pitches are tracked, and client information already lives.
Smarter Collaboration Across Teams
AI’s role isn’t limited to document generation; it also improves cross-office collaboration. In large global firms, marketing and business development professionals cite challenges in keeping content updated and accessible across dozens of offices. Centralized, AI-powered content hubs solve this by serving as a single source of truth.
“In one software, we can manage projects, content, and collaboration all in one,” as one legal BD leader explained, “It’s a game changer for an organization with over 60 offices worldwide.”
The net effect is that legal professionals can spend less time on administrative work and more time on strategic, client-facing activity.
What’s Not Working: Pain Points Holding Firms Back
Despite these successes, many firms remain stalled in their AI journey. The most common challenges include:
- Starting from Scratch: Two-thirds of legal respondents cite creating content from scratch as their biggest hurdle in the 2025 QorusDocs Benchmark Survey. Without AI-enabled templates and reusable content hubs, marketing teams burn hours re-inventing basic materials.
- Tool Fatigue: Many firms suffer from “tool sprawl”, deploying too many disconnected platforms that don’t talk to each other. The result: duplicate effort, inconsistent branding, and compliance risk.
- Trust Issues: Attorneys and clients expect precision and nuance. Concerns about accuracy, tone, or data security often lead to heavy manual review, eroding the efficiency gains AI promises. Platforms hosted on secure, enterprise-grade environments (e.g., Microsoft Azure) mitigate some of these risks by grounding generative AI in approved, permission-based content.
- Lack of Change Management: Technology alone won’t deliver ROI. Without structured onboarding, training, and visible leadership support, adoption lags and tools go under-utilized. Firms that succeed invest in both people and process – not just software.
Where Law Firms Should Focus Next
The path forward isn’t about chasing every new AI application; it’s about focusing where the payoff is clear and the risks are low. Leading firms are adopting four guiding principles:
- Start with measurable use cases
Begin with an area of the business with low risk and high reward: proposals, RFPs, and pitches, where automation clearly saves time, reduces stress, and boosts win rates. - Integrate, don’t isolate
Choose solutions that work within your firm’s existing systems and workflows, reducing friction for attorneys and staff. - Blend AI with human oversight
AI drafts, humans refine. This balance preserves quality and brand tone while scaling output. - Track the right KPIs
Move beyond efficiency metrics. Track quality, client feedback, and win rates to demonstrate AI’s business impact.
According to Thomson Reuters, more than one third (34%) of firms are already using AI for business development, offering a clear competitive advantage for early adopters. The firms that align their AI adoption to these principles will not just keep pace with competitors, they will define the next chapter of legal business development.
The Stakes Are High
For law firms, the message is clear: AI-enabled proposal solutions are no longer optional. It is the difference between scaling with precision and falling behind in a market where clients demand more value for every dollar spent.
AI won’t replace the nuanced expertise of attorneys or marketers. But by removing the repetitive, non-billable work that bogs down teams, it creates space for what matters most: building trust with clients, demonstrating value, and winning more business.
About the Author: Ray Meiring
