Forbes (August 10): AI's True Value Is Recovered Attention for What Human Relationships Require

Avaneesh Marwaha (CEO, Litera) argued in Forbes on August 10 that AI's real return to law firms should be measured not in hours saved but in what recovered capacity enables: earlier, more proactive, deeper engagement with clients and colleagues. The article identifies the critical wellbeing dimension of the AI adoption conversation that most firm AI strategies miss: if AI recovers three hours a week per attorney but those hours are consumed by more billable work rather than lower-intensity relationship work, the wellbeing profile of legal practice does not change. The firms that will differentiate — both in client relationships and in lawyer sustainability — are those that explicitly allocate recovered AI capacity to activities that reduce isolation, build relational support, and create the collegial engagement that the WSBA report identifies as a protective factor against suicidal ideation. For wellbeing officers and HR directors, this provides a practical implementation argument for AI adoption: the wellbeing case for AI is that it can reduce the volume of high-intensity, deadline-driven cognitive work in favour of higher-value human interaction — but only if the firm intentionally designs the reallocation rather than defaulting to more billable throughput.