Whenever I speak to a group of legal marketers about AI, I can almost guarantee someone will ask, “Are you worried AI is going to replace us?” My answer is always the same: not at all. What I do think is that AI is going to change how we work, and honestly, I think that’s a good thing.
Legal marketers have always worn a lot of hats. On any given day, we’re writing proposals, updating websites, rewriting attorney bios, drafting press releases, organizing experience, preparing presentations, planning events and answering a hundred questions that somehow all seem to be urgent. It’s part of the job, but it also leaves less time for the work that often has the biggest impact.
The part of legal marketing I’ve always enjoyed most is working with lawyers on business development strategies, helping them build their brands, brainstorming content ideas, preparing for client meetings and finding new ways to create opportunities. Those are the conversations where relationships are built and ideas come to life.
That’s why I’m excited about AI. I don’t see it replacing legal marketers. I see it helping us spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on the strategic, creative and relationship-driven work that brought many of us into this profession in the first place.
Here are 15 things I’d be happy to hand over to AI.
1. Staring at a Blank Page
Whether I’m writing a client alert, proposal, practice description, award submission, website page or LinkedIn post, getting started is often the hardest part. AI helps me get past that blank page by generating ideas, creating an outline or drafting an opening. I almost always rewrite what it produces, but I’d much rather spend my time improving a draft than staring at a blinking cursor.
2. Tracking Down the Latest Attorney Bio
Every legal marketer has done it. You search through shared drives, old proposals and email attachments trying to figure out which attorney bio is the current version. AI-powered search can find the right document in seconds, which means less time hunting for files and more time focusing on the work that actually moves a project forward.
3. Pulling Representative Matters
Every proposal, RFP and pitch requires a different combination of representative matters. Instead of searching multiple databases or old submissions, AI can surface the most relevant experience based on the client, industry, practice area or matter type. It doesn’t replace judgment, but it dramatically speeds up the process.
4. Repurposing Existing Content
Law firms invest an incredible amount of time creating webinars, articles, client alerts, presentations and podcasts. Too often, that content is published once and never used again. AI makes it much easier to turn one webinar into a series of LinkedIn posts, a newsletter article, FAQs, presentation slides, a blog post and even short-form videos.
5. Cleaning Up CRM Data
CRM databases are never as clean as we’d like them to be. Duplicate contacts, inconsistent company names, outdated titles and incomplete records make it harder to use the data effectively. AI can identify inconsistencies, recommend updates and improve data quality without requiring hours of manual review.
6. Researching Clients, Industries and Competitors
Whether I’m preparing for a client meeting, researching a prospective client or trying to understand an emerging industry, AI can organize information far more quickly than I can. That gives me more time to analyze what I found, identify opportunities and think strategically instead of spending hours gathering information.
7. Formatting Proposals and Presentations
Every legal marketer has spent more time than they’d like adjusting fonts, fixing spacing, resizing logos and making sure everything lines up perfectly before a proposal goes out the door. Those details matter, but I’d happily let AI handle more of that formatting so I can focus on the messaging and strategy behind the proposal.
8. Creating First Drafts of Routine Emails
There are plenty of emails I write every week that follow a familiar pattern. Meeting follow-ups, event invitations, speaker outreach, client reminders and internal communications don’t need to be written from scratch every single time. AI helps me prepare a solid first draft that I can quickly edit and personalize.
9. Organizing Conference Notes
Every conference generates pages of notes, ideas, business cards and follow-up items. AI can summarize sessions, organize action items, identify recurring themes and even suggest content ideas based on what I learned. Instead of leaving with a notebook full of information, I leave with an organized plan.
10. Finding Content We Already Created
Law firms have years of client alerts, articles, presentations, videos and marketing materials that often get forgotten. AI makes institutional knowledge much easier to search, helping marketers find content that can be updated, repurposed or shared with clients instead of creating something entirely new.
11. Proofreading and Consistency
I never rely on AI as my final editor, but it’s excellent at catching inconsistent formatting, grammar, spelling, capitalization and style issues before something goes out the door. It’s another quality-control step that saves time without replacing careful review.
12. Building a Content Calendar
AI can help transform webinars, client alerts, presentations, podcasts and conference takeaways into an organized content plan. It can group related topics, identify gaps, recommend publishing cadence and build an editorial calendar that keeps thought leadership moving throughout the year.
13. Turning Meeting Notes Into Action Items
Whether it’s a practice group meeting, client meeting or brainstorming session, AI can summarize discussions, identify next steps and organize follow-up items almost instantly. That means less time writing notes after meetings and more time actually moving projects forward.
14. Searching Across Hundreds of Files
Most marketing departments have years of presentations, proposals, articles and campaign materials stored across multiple systems. AI-powered search makes it much easier to locate exactly what you’re looking for without remembering where someone saved it three years ago.
15. Drafting Award Submissions
Award submissions are some of the most time-intensive projects legal marketers handle. AI can help organize matter descriptions, summarize accomplishments, identify themes across submissions and create first drafts that can then be tailored to the specific award criteria. It doesn’t replace the strategy behind a winning submission, but it can eliminate hours of repetitive writing.
16. Supporting Public Relations Efforts
AI can help communications professionals spend less time creating first drafts and more time shaping the story. Whether you’re preparing a press release, developing talking points, identifying media angles or helping a lawyer prepare for an interview, AI can organize information, strengthen messaging and accelerate the drafting process. That creates more time for strategic communications, media outreach and relationship building.
17. Competitive Intelligence
Competitive intelligence has become much more accessible with AI. Instead of manually reviewing firm websites, press releases, newsletters and LinkedIn posts, AI can monitor competitor activity, summarize key developments and identify patterns over time. That gives marketing and business development teams more time to focus on the bigger questions: What does this mean? How should we respond? Where are the opportunities?
18. Preparing Lawyers for Speaking Opportunities
When a lawyer is speaking at a conference or participating on a panel, AI can help gather background information on the audience, summarize recent developments, suggest questions that may come up and organize supporting materials. That preparation allows marketers to spend more time coaching speakers and refining messaging.
19. Making Better Use of Institutional Knowledge
Law firms already have an enormous amount of institutional knowledge. The challenge is finding it when you need it. AI can search proposals, pitch materials, experience databases, client alerts, presentations and internal documents in seconds, making it easier to build on prior work instead of starting from scratch.
20. Anything that gives me more time with people
One of the opportunities I find most exciting is what AI could free us up to do. Legal marketers wear a lot of hats, and much of our day is spent tracking down information, organizing documents, formatting materials, summarizing meetings and handling dozens of small tasks that keep projects moving. Those responsibilities are important, but they’re also time consuming.
If AI can take some of that work off our plates, it creates more opportunities to focus on the parts of our jobs that often have the greatest impact. We can spend more time meeting with partners to develop business development strategies, preparing lawyers for pitches and speaking engagements, identifying cross-selling opportunities, coaching attorneys on their personal brands, strengthening client relationships and developing creative campaigns that help our firms stand out.
Those are the conversations where legal marketers make a real difference. You can’t automate brainstorming with a partner before a pitch, helping someone think through a business development strategy or recognizing an opportunity that everyone else missed. AI can help us get to those conversations faster, but it isn’t replacing them anytime soon.
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