Measuring ROI on Legal AI Projects (Before the Board Asks)

At some point, every firm that experiments with AI gets the question from partners or the board:

“So what are we actually getting for this?”

Vague answers about “innovation” and “keeping up” will not cut it. You need a simple, honest way to talk about return on investment (ROI) for legal AI projects, even when benefits are partly qualitative.

This article suggests a straightforward framework for measuring ROI on legal AI projects in UK firms — before the board asks.

1. Define outcomes in plain language

Start by translating “AI” into outcomes that partners already care about. Typical goals include:

Time saved on high‑volume, low‑complexity tasks (summaries, notes, time capture).
Reduced write‑offs due to better time recording and narratives.
Improved supervision and reduced risk of missed issues.
Better client experience (faster responses, clearer updates).

For each AI initiative, pick 2–3 primary outcomes and phrase them as simple statements, for example:

“Reduce average partner time spent drafting first‑pass client updates by 30%.”
“Capture an extra 0.3 hours per fee‑earner per day in legitimate work that is currently unrecorded.”

These become your North Star for measurement.

2. Understand costs beyond licence fees

ROI is not just “software bill vs time saved”. Include:

licence or usage costs (per‑user, per‑document, per‑token);
implementation and integration work;
time spent on training and governance;
internal change‑management effort.

For each project, sketch an annual cost envelope, even if rough. This helps you avoid:

underestimating one‑off setup costs;
ignoring the opportunity cost of senior time spent on pilots that do not scale.

Being explicit about costs makes it easier to defend good projects — and to kill bad ones early.

3. Use pilots with control groups where you can

The cleanest way to measure impact is to compare like with like, for example:

One team uses AI‑assisted email summarisation for three months; a similar team does not.
One group uses AI time capture; another continues with manual time entry.

You can then compare:

time taken for target tasks;
volume and quality of time entries;
write‑off patterns;
supervision metrics (for example, how often partners had to reconstruct what happened).

You will not get perfect scientific experiments, but even rough comparisons are better than gut feel alone.

4. Track a small, focused metric set

Resist the temptation to measure everything. A practical dashboard for an AI initiative might track:

Adoption – how many users actually use the feature, and how often.
Efficiency – time per task before vs after (from surveys or sampling).
Financial impact – changes in recorded time, write‑offs or recoveries.
Quality – partner and client feedback, error or complaint rates.

For example, for AI assisted time capture you might measure:

average daily recorded hours per fee‑earner;
proportion of “thin” time narratives;
write‑offs at billing compared with a prior period.

A few well‑chosen graphs beat pages of numbers nobody reads.

5. Capture qualitative benefits without hand‑waving

Some benefits are real but hard to quantify, such as:

less cognitive load on juniors;
improved supervision conversations;
better training material from AI‑assisted notes.

You can still capture these by:

short surveys at the start and end of pilots;
structured partner interviews (“Has this changed how you review files?”);
case studies (“We handled X matter more smoothly because…”).

Present these alongside hard metrics as supporting evidence, not as the whole story.

6. Be honest about trade‑offs and failure

Not every AI experiment will pay off. Boards are more likely to back you if they see that you can:

close down projects that do not deliver;
pivot features based on feedback;
learn from issues and update policies accordingly.

Build “kill criteria” into initiatives from the start, for example:

“If adoption is under 20% after six months, we will stop this feature or redesign it.”
“If time saved per user is less than X minutes per day, we will not roll out firm‑wide.”

Reporting that something did not work — and what you did in response — builds credibility.

7. Present ROI in the language of partners and boards

When the time comes to explain AI ROI, frame it in terms they recognise:

Fee‑earners’ time – “This saves about 30 minutes per day for 40 people; that’s roughly one extra fee‑earner’s worth of capacity.”
Write‑offs – “Write‑offs in pilot teams fell from 18% to 13%, worth around £X per year at current run‑rates.”
Risk and supervision – “Supervisors report fewer surprises at billing and better visibility over live files.”

Be clear where numbers are measured vs estimated, and avoid overstating longer‑term benefits. Under‑promising at the start makes future success easier to show.

Where OrdoLux fits

OrdoLux is being designed to make AI ROI measurable, not mythical:

AI features are tied to specific workflows — email summaries, chronologies, time capture, task extraction — where time and quality impacts can be tracked;
usage is logged at matter and user level, so you can see who is using what, and how often;
data about time recording, supervision and outcomes can be exported into your BI tools or board packs.

That way, when your firm asks, “What are we actually getting from AI, and from OrdoLux?”, you can answer with numbers, stories and clear next steps, not just enthusiasm.

This article is general information for practitioners — not financial advice, not audit advice and not a substitute for your own management information or reporting frameworks.

Looking for legal case management software?

OrdoLux is legal case management software for UK solicitors, designed to make matter management, documents, time recording, reporting and AI assistance feel like one joined‑up system. Learn more on the OrdoLux website.