Adam Smith Esq: "Are You Smarter at AI Than Your Clients?" — The In-House KM Competency Gap

Adam Smith Esq published (July 28) a commentary prompted by Ford Motor Company Chief Policy Officer and GC Steven Croley's Bloomberg Law column on AI disruption. The core question for law firms: when in-house teams deploy AI for research that was previously sent to outside counsel, the sophistication gap is closing — fast. Accenture's legal team (3,300 professionals, 42 countries) deployed CoCounsel across its entire legal function and reported that instructions to outside lawyers are becoming "sharper and more targeted" because internal research is now conducted before external instructions are written. One German senior lawyer reduced a complex litigation response from a full day to half a day. The implication for law firm KM teams: if clients are using AI to narrow the knowledge advantage that drove outside counsel use, the law firm's differentiator shifts from knowledge access (what we know) to knowledge quality (how well it is curated, governed, and structured for reliable AI use). KM infrastructure is therefore the asset that sustains the law firm's value proposition as clients close the basic research gap.