Everlaw survey says 54% of in-house teams have reduced outside work

On October 20, 2026, Everlaw published a vendor-sponsored Wakefield survey of 300 in-house legal professionals in which 54% said generative AI had already reduced work sent to outside providers and another 44% expected a reduction within a year. The same survey reported that 86% used generative AI, 92% of users claimed measurable cost savings and 81% expected outcome-based pricing to overtake hourly billing within five years. These are self-reported findings commissioned by a legal-technology provider, not audited measures of savings, but they still signal how buyers are framing procurement and panel discussions. New Law operators should therefore make scope substitution explicit: identify which work disappears, which work becomes supervised automation and which higher-value judgment remains human-led.