How precedent-driven drafting is transforming legal perceptions

Lawyers were understandably cautious when AI technology entered the legal sphere in 2023. The prevailing consensus was clear: AI tools might be helpful for emails and summarization, but use cases like legal drafting presented risk and complexity challenges beyond AI’s capabilities.

This perspective is changing. According to the 2025 LegalTechHub-SKILLS survey, which gathered insights from 100 top-tier firms, including 70 American practices, eight Canadian firms, nine from the United Kingdom, and 13 from other jurisdictions, the legal AI landscape is quickly evolving in its perception of AI. The survey revealed that firms have begun embracing AI solutions, having implemented over 15 live GenAI solutions on average.

What's driving this evolution? Technology designed with a deep understanding of legal work can enhance workflows and build on what lawyers do best—delivering quality results.

A leading ‘intent to use’ rating suggests DraftWise’s emergence as top Legal AI tool 

DraftWise’s solution-oriented approach is pulling ahead in the drafting race 

The LegalTechHub-SKILLS survey places DraftWise among the' top three legal drafting solutions of the top global firms. Our "intent to use" metric is particularly telling, surpassing every other provider in the space.

This positioning reflects changing priorities in the legal field: the industry is moving from more general legal AI solutions to wanting tools that address specific needs or use cases. While early market entrants have established strong footholds, DraftWise's trajectory suggests we're positioned for significant growth in the coming year.

This trajectory isn't accidental. As the survey notes, DraftWise has "developed powerful workflows for contract drafting in particular," providing lawyers with capabilities that align with how you work rather than creating process disruptions and introducing uncertainties of hallucinated language. 

The key insight: Precedent-driven drafting changes how lawyers work

As the LegalTechHub-SKILLS survey notes, the legal market has shifted "largely because more sophisticated providers have built GenAI into legal drafting workflows in a more palatable way to law firms. Rather than using GenAI to draft from scratch, these products now leverage GenAI on top of firm precedents and templates to ensure that it adds value to maintain the integrity of a firm's styles and legal positions."

This solution-oriented and customized approach, which has long been the guiding light for the DraftWise team, addresses accuracy concerns about AI, including hallucinating concepts or misstating established positions. By building on your carefully crafted precedents and templates—the intellectual capital lawyers have developed over years of practice—DraftWise maintains your firm's distinctive legal knowledge while eliminating the repetitive aspects of drafting that don't require your specialized judgment.

The Legal AI competitive landscape: Precedent as the key differentiator

While established players like Harvey and Thomson Reuters have secured strong positions by refining their workflows, and litigation-focused tools like Clearbrief address specialized needs, a clear pattern is emerging across the market: firms increasingly prioritize solutions that leverage their existing intellectual capital rather than generic AI implementations. 

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This emphasis on precedent-driven approaches explains why traditional document automation systems now represent a smaller proportion of adoption metrics—and why DraftWise's trajectory shows such promise. Lawyers across the industry are recognizing that the most valuable AI tools don't just generate content; they enhance the legal knowledge and workflows you've invested years developing.

What's next: Leading with solution-oriented Legal AI 

With a steady focus on transforming lawyers draft, review, and negotiate, DraftWise has emerged as a tool that lawyers can trust. 

By solving the pain points of lawyers' everyday work, where and how they work—leveraging your firm's collective wisdom through systems that draw on precedent, enabling knowledge management through clause bank development, and allowing you to apply your guidance directly into your contracts—DraftWise is positioned to transform how lawyers practice in 2025 and beyond.

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