The legal industry has embraced technology to help law firms and in-house teams operate more efficiently, while startups are beginning to see some benefits as well. However, the businesses most left behind by this shift are traditional companies. For these businesses, legal services remain unpredictable, inconsistent, and expensive.

While legal tech shows promise, it often forces businesses to navigate legal complexities themselves—a burden that traditional businesses and start-ups can’t afford to bear. The early successes of advanced AI tools like OpenAI's reasoning models highlight the potential for innovation to address these gaps.

The evolution of legal technology

Legal technology has made significant strides in addressing the needs of certain segments of the legal industry:

1. Law firms
   Law firms are some of the biggest beneficiaries of legal tech. Tools designed for automation—such as document review, research, and e-discovery platforms—have streamlined workflows, improved efficiency, and boosted profitability. These solutions allow firms to handle more cases with fewer resources, reinforcing their position in the legal market.

   
   

2. In-house legal teams
   In-house teams have also gained from specialised legal tech solutions. Platforms that focus on contract management, compliance tracking, and dispute resolution have transformed the way corporate legal departments operate. These tools enable legal teams to do more with smaller budgets while maintaining oversight of company-wide legal matters.

   
   

3. Startups
   Startups are beginning to access legal tech for VC-related tasks like managing equity, issuing SAFEs, etc.

Traditional businesses: The most underserved

Unlike startups, which are beginning to benefit from some legal tools, traditional businesses are largely excluded from the legal tech conversation. Their main challenges include:

• Conflicting advice: Traditional businesses often receive inconsistent guidance from multiple lawyers, leading to confusion and uncertainty.

• Unpredictable costs: Legal fees are highly variable, making budgeting nearly impossible.

• Avoiding documentation: To cut costs, many traditional businesses skip essential legal documentation, such as founders’ agreements or low-value contracts.

However, failing to document agreements—even for small transactions—exposes businesses to risks, disputes, and missed opportunities.

Why legal tech isn’t solving the problem

Legal tech today focuses on templates and tools that require businesses to do much of the work themselves. For traditional businesses, this is far from ideal: they don’t want to become legal experts—they want to avoid legal headaches altogether.

The future of legal tech should focus on eliminating the need for businesses to handle legal processes manually and providing intuitive, hands-off tools that can be used across company departments.

The promise of advanced AI

The early results from reasoning models like ChatGPT O1 and ChatGPT O3 show how technology can revolutionise legal tech for traditional businesses with the right approach and expertise. These tools can:

• Enhance reasoning: Deliver clear, reliable, and consistent legal advice when combined with the right data sets, scraping and legal expertise.

• Increase accessibility: Provide simple, intuitive solutions that make legal services less intimidating.

• Reduce costs: Automate complex processes, making legal support affordable for all businesses.

AI models like these prove that the future of legal tech doesn’t lie in forcing businesses to do legal work themselves but in providing effortless, reliable solutions tailored to their needs.

A step forward: Legaltech and regulation

The UK introduced regulations allowing legal tech providers to operate in non-reserved legal activities, such as contract drafting and review. This marks a significant step forward, showing that innovation can complement traditional legal services without sacrificing quality.

Other regions, including the US and EU, should follow suit. Surveys consistently show that businesses feel underserved by the legal industry. With the right regulations, legal tech can better serve the needs of traditional businesses and make legal support more accessible.

A call for change

Traditional businesses are the most underserved by today’s legal landscape. Legal tech must shift its focus from law firms and startups to providing affordable, consistent, and intuitive solutions for these companies. The goal isn’t to turn businesses into legal experts—it’s to eliminate their legal burdens altogether.

Take action today
At WhatsLaw, we’re committed to creating AI-powered solutions that simplify legal processes for traditional businesses . From low-value contracts to essential agreements, we provide tools that make managing legal matters effortless.