The disconnect between adoption rates and financial results remains unexplained. A 2026 Clio survey reports even higher self-reported adoption—71% for solo practitioners and 75% for small firms—yet the revenue data suggests these firms are not effectively deploying the tools they have acquired. Whether the problem lies in inadequate training, poor tool selection, or fundamental misalignment between available software and actual practice needs is unclear.
Small firm attorneys should scrutinize their AI spending against concrete metrics: Are billable hours increasing? Is client acquisition accelerating? Are operational costs declining? The risk is real that larger firms, which have dedicated resources and institutional knowledge to implement AI effectively, will pull further ahead. Solo and small firm practitioners need to move beyond adoption for its own sake and demand tools and strategies that solve specific workflow problems—or risk being outcompeted by firms that do.