Beyond the hype: AI disruption in India’s legal practice

India’s top law firms aren’t merely adopting AI, they’re reshaping the foundations of legal practice.

With AI adoption accelerating at an unprecedented pace, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas’ firm-wide implementation of Harvey AI – a generative AI platform made specially for legal professionals – represents more than a technology upgrade; it is a strategic bet on the restructuring of legal services delivery.

The competitive response reveals two distinct strategies. While SAM has pursued deep integration with Harvey AI, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has adopted a multi-platform approach – deploying Harvey AI (on a Pilot basis) and Lucio to empower its lawyers with AI driven capabilities. CAM also deployed Copilot and ChatGPT Plus to redefine its business operations and enhance internal workflows, as confirmed in their official press release. CAM previously explored AI’s potential through Prarambh - its proprietary legal tech incubator - which completed two cohorts by 2021 and supported startups focused on legal automation and dispute resolution. This divergence reveals a crucial insight: AI integration is not just about choosing one tool, but developing a comprehensive digital infrastructure.

The competitive dynamics are stark. When AI can complete a ten-hour task in two hours, firms face a pricing paradox: how to maintain profitability while passing efficiency gains to the clients? Traditional hourly billing models become unsustainable when the underlying time economics change dramatically.

Platforms like Kira Systems can analyse contracts significantly faster than human reviewers. Similarly, Harvey AI significantly shortens response time for legal queries. While these tools promise to augment junior lawyers, they also risk automating many of their responsibilities. This creates a bifurcated market; senior lawyers leveraging AI for strategic tasks will command premium fees. Meanwhile, routine legal work of contract review, basic research and standard drafting will be delegated to AI. As a result, the middle-tiered legal practices face compression.

This disruption creates a new hierarchy, not just between firms, but also between types of legal professionals.

The conventional systems suggest that lawyers should develop “uniquely human skills”. However, this perspective overlooks the point. AI doesn’t eliminate human skills, it redefines their market value. Complex negotiation and strategic thinking become more valuable because routine tasks become worthless. Rather than chasing new skills, lawyers must reposition their existing expertise higher in the AI-influenced value chain.  As routine legal work loses its value, complex negotiation skills and strategic thinking are becoming premium capabilities. Lawyers who can synthesise AI-generated research into strategic advice or who can navigate AI-accelerated deal processes will capture a disproportionate value.

India’s legal regulatory framework for legal practice has not kept pace in the face of rapid AI integration. Professional conduct rules are silent on AI-generated work product, data residency requirements for legal AI platforms or disclosure obligations when AI contributes to legal analysis. This regulatory lag creates both opportunity and risk. A potential step would be for the Bar Council of India (BCI) or the Ministry of Law and Justice to issue interim guidelines, including disclosure norms when AI assisted deliverables or requirements for AI audit trails in litigation.

Early adopters like CAM and SAM are essentially beta-testing professional responsibility standards. Their practices will influence eventual regulatory frameworks, potentially giving them early mover advantages in regulatory compliance and operational efficiency.

The successful transition requires three specific actions:

Technical infrastructure: Effective AI integration hinges on a strong technological foundation, encompassing secure data architecture, advanced cybersecurity measures and a seamless and hassle-free interoperability between systems and already existing platforms. SAM’s centralised Harvey AI approach and CAM’s multi-tool strategy both imply significant investment in these backend capabilities.

Process redesign: Merely automating existing workflows fails to leverage AI’s transformative potential. To unlock AI’s full transformative value, firms must rethink their legal processes – streamlining tasks, reallocating human resources to higher order functions and embedding AI at the core of decision-making processes and document production cycles.

Market positioning: AI enables alternative service models that go beyond the billable hour. Firms that rethink on how they can price say, by offering subscription-based or outcome-driven services, and position themselves as strategic partners rather than task executors, will be best positioned to capture long-term client value in an AI-first legal economy.

The AI revolution in Indian legal practice is not just about enhancing productivity by using technology; it’s about reshaping the entire market structure. Firms that grasp this distinction will lead the next phase of legal innovation. Those treating AI as a simple efficiency tool risk falling into a price-based competition in an increasingly commoditised market. The transformation is already underway. AI will not just reshape workflows - it will redefine scale, access and the value proposition of legal services.

Adwait Shikhare is a law student at ILS Law College, Pune.