83% of In-House Legal Teams Cannot Measure Whether AI Spending Is Working — Axiom Documents the ROI Gap

Axiom's 2026 In-House Legal AI Report (July 9) surveyed 528 in-house legal leaders and found that while every legal team using AI plans to increase its AI budget next cycle, 83% cannot demonstrate whether last year's AI spending paid off, and only 7% have moved past piloting to use, optimize, and measure AI across their organization. The gap between spend confidence and ROI documentation is the operational context for every client conversation about AI pricing expectations: in-house teams know they should be getting value from AI, cannot yet prove they are, and are directing that pressure toward outside counsel through fee reduction mandates and AI governance requirements. For law firms, the Axiom data suggests a BD strategy: firms that help in-house clients articulate and measure their own AI ROI — not just demonstrate their own AI capability — position themselves as AI program partners rather than service vendors managing potential displacement.