Legal AI's ROI Reckoning Has Arrived: Why 2027 Budgets Will Fund Systems of Record, Not Point Tools

The September 2026 signal from the legal tech market is unmistakable: AI is being asked to prove itself on narrow, measurable tasks. Baker McKenzie is pouring resources into firmwide training so lawyers can actually extract value; new entrants are pitching revenue engines rather than chatbots. The firms that will show ROI next year are the ones whose AI sits on top of a system that already holds their data.