UK Thomson Reuters Report: Corporate Legal Teams Moving Faster Than Their Outside Firms on GenAI

Thomson Reuters' 2026 State of the UK Legal Market report documented a client expectation shift that applies equally to US-based relationships: many UK legal buyers now expect outside counsel to use AI to improve efficiency, workflows, and quality of legal work. Only 41% of corporate respondents say external counsel briefings are a valuable source of risk information — clients increasingly want proactive, business-oriented risk advice rather than reactive legal reaction. Net spend anticipation in the UK stands at +5 percentage points, with demand concentrated in Regulatory (+28) and Labour & Employment (+14), while Insurance (-8), IP (-5), and Disputes (-5) face contraction. Forty-four percent of UK buyers plan to increase international legal spend, with cross-border matters averaging 30 countries and accounting for 42% of external legal spend. For BD leads at firms with international capacity, the cross-border demand signal is actionable: clients are consolidating international work with fewer firms, and those firms need to demonstrate both AI competency and proactive commercial insight to justify panel status.