Last year, generative AI landed on the scene with a bang, and few professionals were quite as shocked—or enthralled—as lawyers. But for the most part, law firms are ready for this new innovation, having embraced more traditional forms of AI, such as machine learning, for years, and becoming more automated and technologically mature in the process.

Generative AI, however, may leave a deeper mark. While firms’ leveraging of past AI technologies hasn’t significantly loosened the billable hour’s stranglehold on the market, many lawyers see generative AI finally doing what many of these past innovations could not. The 2023 Legaltech News Law Firm Tech Survey of 36 firms, for instance, found that almost 45% of respondents believe generative AI will lessen their reliance on the billable hour, while around 15% predicted it won’t, and approximately 35% didn’t know.