Pricing in the age of GenAI: insights from Briefing’s Finance Leaders event
At a recent finance leaders event organised by Briefing (and supported by ayora), a room full of law firm CFOs gathered to discuss all things legal finance. Unsurprisingly, pricing was a dominant theme as the rise of generative AI is reshaping firms’ commercial models. Whilst there was no consensus on what the future will look like, a number of signals emerged about where things may be headed.
Law firm x client collaboration
Large clients are increasingly keen to work with firms to find a pricing model that genuinely creates a win-win situation. That means grown-up conversations about how advances in technology (including AI) can bring down bills without cutting into profitability. Equally important is collaboration on how to measure success and capture the benefits in a way both sides can trust.
Firms must evidence ROI, not just effort
Law firms deliver premium business solutions with high value to clients. Yet lawyers often struggle to articulate what that value is, let alone quantify it. The default is still the billable hour – a blunt instrument that fails to capture the impact firms create. Clients are looking for more, and CFOs agreed the onus is on firms to start telling a stronger value story.
Better data underpins better pricing
Pricing is an art, but costing is a science. The cost to deliver a matter sets the floor, and without knowing it, firms cannot confidently calibrate fees - especially when moving away from time and materials. Yet most law firm data remains poor. Matter datasets are rarely rich enough to distinguish relevant historic matters, and task and phase codes are often misapplied. This is a serious weakness for the industry and one that must be addressed quickly.
New technologies are beginning to change this, with tools that can clean and enrich matter and time records to make them genuinely usable for pricing. Finance and pricing teams also have a crucial role here: they can translate this improved data into practical insights, helping lawyers understand expected profitability at the outset of a matter and giving partners the confidence to have more commercially grounded conversations with clients.
Lessons from other disrupted sectors
AI is not just transforming legal. One attendee noted that software development agencies have already felt its impact sharply: delivery times collapsed, and agencies that stuck with hourly pricing saw revenues fall. Some responded by introducing a flat “accelerator fee”, a surcharge that reflects expertise and accumulated industry knowledge. This approach can be tuned either to protect margin or to win market share.
Consulting firms provide another useful comparison. They have long been adept at creating productised services – packaging repeatable offerings with predictable delivery models and pricing them on terms that balance one-off higher fees for bespoke work with annuity-style lower fees for recurring services. For law firms, productisation could represent a way to shift towards commercial models that reward efficiency and expertise, rather than just time spent.
A cultural shift is coming
Perhaps the hardest challenge will be cultural. Entire generations of lawyers have grown up viewing the world through a billable-hour lens. Moving beyond it will mean getting much better at scoping work, defining ROI and navigating commercial trade-offs. True fixed fees and genuine value-based pricing will not be possible if lawyers cling to timesheets as a safety net. Leadership will need to shepherd their firms through what could be a profound shift.
It was also noted that the “death of the billable hour” has been heralded for decades. In reality, a shift in commercial models rarely happens gradually - it takes a sudden and dramatic trigger, often a regulatory change or a major technological disruption. With generative AI, the industry may finally be facing the closest thing to that trigger in living memory.
Conclusion
The day showed that while there is no single vision of the future of law firm pricing, the outlines are becoming clearer. Collaboration with clients, stronger evidence of value, richer data, productised services, lessons from other industries and a willingness to embrace cultural change will all be essential. For firms that can master these, the age of AI could unlock not just efficiency, but new opportunities to price - and capture - the real value they deliver.
