Extract from Cassandre Coyer’s article “Behind the Prices: Is Generative AI Legal Tech Cheaper to Buy or Build?”
There are many questions still left unanswered about generative artificial intelligence: How will it be leveraged by the legal industry? How will it transform the delivery of legal services?
But perhaps most interestingly, how much will it really cost?
The pricing dynamics of generative AI-powered tools in the legal technology space are very much still evolving, but what is clear is that the traditional build vs. buy balancing test has gotten more complicated. Now, add to that equation hidden fees and computing power, among other factors.
Overall, it comes with little surprise that the technology is making these legal tech solutions more expensive both to buy and to run. But how expensive generative AI tools will be could ultimately come down to firms’ use cases for the technology.
Legal Tech Providers’ Flat Fees
For now, one of the most common ways that law firms and legal departments have been able to use generative AI tools has been through their legal tech providers, many of whom who have released new solutions powered by large language models (LLMs) in the past year.
