From Pilots to Practice: How RE Legal Teams Are Operationalizing AI

As we’ve heard from real estate partners and senior in-house counsel  at our latest Orbital Executive Forum, the conversation regarding AI adoption in law firms—and how best to measure its business impact—is ongoing and far from settled. But what is becoming clear is that many firms aren’t waiting to construct a perfect framework. Instead, they are starting to embed AI into day-to-day operations, using real matters, teams, and workflows as the testing ground for what “value” looks like in practice.

In this article, Ella Ovenden, Senior Legal (AI) Engineer at Orbital, shares what she’s hearing from our real estate customers, as well as hearing across the industry, as legal teams continue to progress from pilots to operationalizing AI in meaningful ways to improve their practice. She draws on themes from a recent industry event and her ongoing conversations with innovation leads, partners and junior lawyers at a wide range of UK law firms.

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Modernising Legal Training

A recurring theme is that the age-old “learning by doing” model, built on hours of manual document review and basic drafting, no longer mirrors how work is actually done in AI-enabled legal teams. With technology increasingly supporting the legal tasks traditionally undertaken by more junior team members, many firms are rethinking how lawyers earlier in their careers develop their skills in an industry that is transforming into a new era from the one in which their superiors were trained.

Firms are experimenting with:

• simulated exercises and scenario-based training, much in the same way that other high-pressure industries learn their profession;

• AI-guided drafting with amendments suggested based on law firm know-how or client-specific negotiation playbooks; and

• virtual mentors that can quiz juniors on key topics, test legal reasoning, and suggest structured improvements as an on-demand supervisor.

There is also a growing focus on capturing senior expertise in more permanent forms before those individuals finish their careers. Firms are beginning to think about using AI to turn partner insight into accessible, queryable resources, including internal chat style tools that can answer recurring questions when those experts are not available.

Together, these approaches reflect a shift from traditional apprenticeship-style training towards a more intentional forward-thinking model. Firms are starting to recognize the impact this can have on accelerating junior development, rather than fearing the impact of technology on those earlier on in their careers. As teams become more comfortable learning alongside AI, new habits begin to form that directly shape how work gets done.

Cultural and Skillset Shifts 

As AI integrates further into everyday work, some conversations are turning toward the psychological side of legal workspaces and how this could impact adoption. The skills that seem particularly important in AI-enabled legal teams, such as creativity, adaptability and the ability to work across disciplines, tend to develop when people can dedicate consistent effort to growing such skills. 

Law firms need to foster an environment where lawyers feel encouraged to use AI on real matters, with enough space and psychological safety to experiment, observe how the technology behaves and reflect on the results. For example, lawyers who regularly experiment with AI start to recognize where tools perform well, gaining a greater appreciation for the areas that require more direction or oversight. This familiarity helps them refine their prompting, shape tasks more effectively, and understand when issues require human judgment or escalation. For example, in a lease reporting workflow, a lawyer might use AI to produce an initial draft or extract certain data points, review the output for inaccuracies or contextual issues, and then work with a senior colleague to refine the combined output. Over time, working this way helps people adjust their approach, learn where human judgment and contextual understanding retains its value and distribute learnings for colleagues to benefit from.

Junior lawyers are often the most closely involved in the interactions with AI because they commonly undertake the workflows where AI is now used. They may also be more technologically literate, critical of existing approaches and able to quickly spot where the technology could genuinely help improve processes. When lawyers share their experiences in team conversations, it allows colleagues to benefit who might not have the time or confidence to explore AI in the same depth. As a result, one person’s effort can lift the capability of the whole team, avoiding duplicated learning curves and accelerating adoption in law firms.

It is becoming clear that the conflict between high billable hour targets, demanding workloads and a need to experiment in order to grow in confidence with the use of technology could pose a large hurdle to strong adoption. Firms that create space and time for junior colleagues to test, question, and refine how they use AI are better positioned to benefit from the efficiencies and quality improvements that follow.

Taken together, these patterns signal a broader cultural shift: experimentation, iteration, and small, recoverable mistakes are becoming part of how legal teams grow capability. Instead of AI sitting at the periphery, it is fast becoming a central component of how skills are developed within AI-enabled legal teams.

What Drives Consistent AI Adoption

Perceptions of AI and its utility for legal work have matured significantly. AI is no longer treated as a novelty or an existential threat, but as a strategic enabler of better work and client service. Many lawyers now see it as a way to enhance quality, broaden otherwise time-restricted analysis and deliver stronger outcomes. 

Consistent AI adoption depends heavily on workplace behavior. Partner-led initiatives, firm-wide encouragement and open discussions within teams around the success stories using AI all play a major role in whether adoption becomes widespread.

Some people hesitate to use AI because they fear becoming heavily reliant on new tools. Others use AI privately, reluctant to share tips and tricks in case it suggests an inability to do things manually. The result is uneven adoption across teams, even when everyone has access to the same tools. When legal teams and their leaders have open conversations about where to use AI and agree on a shared approach, it becomes far easier to design and implement new processes.

Governance also plays a role. Effective governance enables experimentation while maintaining guardrails. Restrictive policies and processes, by contrast, can stifle even strong use cases from gaining momentum. The challenge for law firms is finding a workable balance between traditional cultures of regulation and a pressing need for agility in their operations.

The way firms are rethinking training, building skills through live matters and clarifying where AI fits into workflows shows how the technology is starting to influence the substance, not just the speed, of legal work. That emerging picture will form the foundation for more robust conversations about ROI and value as firms continue to scale their use of AI.

A final word 

As law firms shift from testing AI to actually using it day-to-day, a clearer picture is emerging of what successful legal AI adoption really looks like.

• Progress depends on embedding AI into everyday workflows with confidence rather than waiting for perfect frameworks, with firms redesigning training so junior lawyers build skills alongside AI tools.

• The firms seeing the most value recognize this as a cultural shift where junior lawyers often lead the way, translating hands-on experience into practical insights while feeling safe to experiment and learn from mistakes.

• Consistent adoption requires open conversations, supportive governance and shared learning, which unlocks measurable improvements in quality, efficiency and client outcomes when firms align on where AI fits.

Ultimately, these emerging practices show that AI is already reshaping the substance of legal work, laying the foundations for more mature conversations about value and return on investment in the years ahead.