The legal sector has long been regarded as a laggard in technology adoption, slow to embrace the “next big thing,” whether cloud computing or data analytics. Law firms in particular are often caricatured as cautious, even antiquated. Yet those same firms now loudly proclaim their enthusiasm for AI. I call this innovation theatre; talk of “innovation” that too often amounts to lip service, pilot projects, or the procurement of tools they don’t fully understand — all spun into press releases as evidence of being cutting edge.

By contrast, corporate law departments are moving beyond rhetoric and into practice. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Chief Legal Officer Strategy Survey, 93 per cent of CLOs believe generative AI will deliver value to their organisations within a year. Far from simply adopting new tools, CLOs are positioning themselves as enterprise leaders, driving AI into the core of business operations. In other words, corporate law departments aren’t tinkering — they’re leading the charge.

Appetite for productivity improvement

Two forces explain this mindset shift. First, an economic climate where every division must demonstrate measurable value. In-house legal teams are under pressure to do more with less, to handle ever-increasing workloads without expanding headcount, and without compromising accuracy or quality.

Second, the rise of a new model — Augmented Intelligence — which keeps a human in the loop and is a particularly strong fit for legal practice. At its core, it’s about enhancement, not replacement. not the dystopian vision of “robot lawyers” making decisions in isolation, nor generic automation layered awkwardly over existing workflows.

Instead, Augmented Intelligence uses AI to amplify legal skills, enabling professionals to work faster, with greater accuracy and sharper insights. This is a new category of legal service, very different from the purveyors of the status quo, law firms with self-serving economic models, consulting firms dabbling at the edges, and tech providers peddling one-size-fits-all solutions when bespoke is required. No two in-house legal teams are alike, yet this truth has too often fallen on deaf ears, leaving lawyers exasperated by cookie-cutter delivery models or €1,000-per-hour consultants who spend months circling the tech landscape, pick one half-fitting “solution,” and walk away, leaving the department to wrestle with it until, inevitably, it is abandoned.

Why Johnson Hana and Eudia came together

Earlier this year, Johnson Hana merged with Palo Alto–based legal technology pioneer, Eudia. The deal was driven by a shared conviction that the traditional legal services model suits everyone except the customer, the in-house legal department. Perverse incentives reward inefficiency, clients pay for time, not value; inputs, not outcomes.

We believe Augmented Intelligence changes that equation. By combining the best of lawyers with the best of technology, we can enhance quality and transform delivery. Most importantly, this approach restores value and control to the General Counsel. Institutional knowledge, historically trapped in the heads of individual lawyers, is now captured, stored, and safeguarded, surviving beyond the tenure of any one person.

Legal work has always been about judgment, context, and the ability to navigate complex, high-stakes situations. Think of Augmented Intelligence as a way to combine the speed of AI with human judgment helping legal teams deliver more value in less time.

A perfect AI toolkit for a human-led profession

Here at last is a technology legal leaders can embrace, one that tackles the productivity challenge without diminishing the skills that make legal work indispensable. AI handles the repetitive heavy lifting, reviewing documents, surfacing patterns, suggesting next steps while humans retain authority over the nuanced calls on risk, context, and strategy.

This is why the Johnson Hana–Eudia combination makes sense. Together, we unite legal services and technology under one roof, offering in-house teams the ability to outsource high volumes of work without losing expert oversight. By keeping humans at the centre and empowering them with the right platform, we can transform legal from a perceived bottleneck into a true driver of business value.

Our model moves beyond outdated cost structures, where inefficiency is rewarded — the more hours billed, the more a provider earns. At Johnson Hana, we focus on outcomes, not hours. By aligning technology, talent, and process, we deliver faster results, at higher quality, and at lower cost.

Seamless access to institutional knowledge

Eudia’s technology strengthens this proposition by capturing and leveraging institutional knowledge, optimising how legal teams approach risk, negotiate deals, and manage processes. By building a “legal brain” for each client, combining internal data, external sources, and team expertise, AI becomes a true partner in achieving better outcomes.

Consider contracting, the single biggest pain point for many enterprises. AI can analyse vast volumes of contracts in record time, spotting patterns and standardising reviews. Each negotiation builds on the last, reducing cycle times without weakening legal oversight.

There is no substitute for seasoned judgment. But with Augmented Intelligence, those judgments can be made faster, without compromising their credibility. Crucially, the Eudia platform integrates into existing workflows, avoiding the adoption headaches of siloed solutions. It unlocks trapped data, making institutional knowledge accessible in real time.

Whether in litigation support, M&A due diligence, or complex negotiations, Augmented Intelligence helps legal teams tackle tasks once too time-consuming to manage efficiently. And because the platform learns continuously, accuracy and relevance improve over time.

A new future for legal

The future of legal work isn’t about replacing lawyers with machines. It’s about augmentation, not automation. By fusing human expertise with AI-driven workflows, Johnson Hana, powered by Eudia, combines the best of both worlds, human judgment and AI efficiency.

Together, we are building a profession where lawyers are empowered, clients gain measurable value, and legal departments can finally flourish.

Dan Fox is Co-Founder and CEO of Johnson Hana, a value-focused legal company recently acquired by Paolo Alto-based AI firm Eudia to combine human expertise with AI efficiency to transform the legal industry. This article has been produced in association with Johnson Hana and is partner content.