British Legal Tech Forum 2026: Firms Moving from Experimentation to Systemisation — KM Infrastructure Is the Bottleneck

Thomson Reuters reported on the British Legal Tech Forum 2026 (July 29), finding that most UK law firms are now transitioning from experimentation (tinkering, testing) to systemisation (embedding AI into established ways of working). Legal research is now the leading GenAI use case (80% of deployers, overtaking document review for the first time). CoCounsel passed one million users globally. Fewer than one in five firms measure ROI; most that do focus on operational metrics rather than business outcomes. Four strategic futures were identified — tech-led disruptor, elite boutique, integrated powerhouse, and traditional preserver. The structural gap most directly relevant to KM: the Solicitors Qualifying Examination contains no reference to AI, and "human methodology needs to be systematised before it can be delivered consistently at scale" — a direct statement of the KM infrastructure gap. The firms gaining traction are not those buying the most technology; they are those making deliberate choices and selecting technology to solve specific problems.