Axiom 2026: 92% of In-House Teams Are Negotiating AI-Related Rate Cuts — Firms Aren't Delivering

Axiom's 2026 survey — published July 9 — found that every in-house legal team using AI plans to spend more on it next year, 83% cannot demonstrate ROI from last year's AI spending, and just 7% have moved past piloting to a systematic, measured AI deployment. The procurement finding most directly relevant to BD teams: 92% of in-house teams expect or are actively negotiating AI-related rate reductions from outside counsel, and — by implication of the Deloitte data — few are getting them. A second critical data point: in-house teams prefer ALSPs over law firms for AI-enabled work by more than two to one (52% vs. 24%) — and rate ALSPs ahead of consulting firms, law firms, AI vendors, and industry associations as trusted sources of AI guidance. For BD directors and managing partners, this represents the clearest articulation yet of the panel risk: in-house teams have formed a preference hierarchy for AI-enabled delivery in which law firms do not appear until the third or fourth position, behind the category of service provider that has been taking their process work for a decade.