Watch BigHand's Eric Wangler, Global Legal President and Chief Revenue Officer, and Rob Stote, Chief Product Officer, discuss the key findings from the BigHand 2026 Legal Pricing and Budgeting Trends Analysis. 

They examine how AI is shaping client expectations, whether anyone has figured out how to price it, and what firms can do to explain the value of their efficiency gains.

Transcript

Eric Wangler, Global President and Chief Revenue Officer, BigHand: Hello, everybody. I'm Eric Wangler. I'm BigHand's Global President and Chief Revenue Officer. I'm here with Rob Stote today.

Rob Stote, Chief Product Officer, BigHand: Hi, everybody. My name is Rob Stote, Chief Product Officer here at BigHand. And today we're here talking about our annual survey that we send out to 800 folks globally, specifically around pricing. And this year, the trend was really interesting compared to the previous years. The main theme running through the survey and most of the responses this year was around AI and how AI is affecting pricing and affecting the commercial arrangements that you all are having with your clients.

Eric Wangler: So Rob, not incredibly shocking that AI is the underpinning theme of this year's survey. It's all seemingly what people are talking about. But one of the stats that I found interesting is 56% of firms report increased client demand for AI-driven efficiency and transparency. I think there's two pieces here. One is our clients are expecting more value, perhaps for less cost. We'll talk about that a little later. But then also what we hear invariably over and over and over again from clients is we just want to understand what our outside counsel are doing. The relationship should be managed. We want transparency. We want to understand what, if any, efficiency gains the firms are feeling and how that may translate into commercial value to us.

Rob Stote: That makes complete sense. I think one of the things that was interesting coming out of the survey was, and it came loud and clear, is that I think firms want to respond to those questions. They want to be able to answer those questions, but really only about 30% or so have got their arms around how to actually communicate that. And one of the interesting things that I think firms are struggling with is they understand they're gaining efficiencies, their clients understand they're gaining efficiencies, but what they don't know yet how to do is articulate that or package up their services in such a way where they can articulate that value. One of the things that we saw through the report was firms do a great job of sort of talking about, in this case, talking about what they're going to deliver, but they don't have a great handle on saying, you're actually paying for an outcome, what you're trying to deliver is a result. And although AI will get you there faster, they don't know how to actually say, no, you know what, I'm getting you there faster, I'm getting there more efficiently, but you're still paying for the outcome. I think that's what they're struggling with at the moment.

Eric Wangler: And I think the data holds and supports that. I think the kind of informal surveys we do, so we've had a couple of pricing dinners recently with 20 to 30 pricing professionals. Nobody's figured this out yet. No, there's a lot of work going into it. But at the end of the day, it's evolving so quickly and firms are just really trying to keep up. But I get back to transparency and communication with the client should underpin all of it. 100%. I think at the end of the day, there's an emerging commercial opportunity and firms are trying to figure it out. The data says that 56%, I'm sorry, 53% of firms say clients are willing to pay the same fee where AI improves the value or the outcome, kind of makes sense. 26% say they'll pay a premium for that. I want to come back on that. And then 17% say they expect AI to reduce what clients pay. It seems like there's an awful lot of focus in the market on clients demanding better pricing, lower pricing and efficiency gains. However, the stats in the report would say that actually it's the outcome that matters. I think when they talk about being willing to pay a premium, I think maybe that's an expectation. There'll be less low value work being done. And therefore, the hourly rates and what they're paying for the judgment value, the experience of the top lawyer, maybe there's an ability to gain a premium for that. And it certainly continues to evolve. But at the end of the day, there is an opportunity here if firms can get it right to differentiate themselves in the market.

Rob Stote: No, I agree 100%. I think, to your point, if you're paying for the outcome, sometimes if I can deliver that outcome sooner, faster, that's worth a premium, that's worth something. And to your point, if I'm elevating the high value work and offloading the low value work, that's definitely worth a premium as well. I agree.

Eric Wangler: I think interestingly, you know, in conversations in the market, Nobody seems to be slowing down associate hiring. So I think one, there's an increased attrition in the ranks. So that's something that firms are dealing with. But with all this lower value work potentially or currently being replaced with AI, there's still an influx of lawyers who need to do the work, need to be trained. And how we bill for that is going to evolve.

Rob Stote: I agree. I agree. And I think one of the things that, you know, coming through the survey as well, pretty loud and clear is use of tech, use of technology to help it, to aid in those things. And then obviously you can't just sort of make this stuff at a whole cost. So firms that are leveraging technology, firms that actually have a solution in place, I think are probably a step ahead of those that don't. Coming from the survey, good news in the survey is that roughly 50% of the folks out there that we survey do have some sort of solution in place, which I think is fantastic. We want to get that, obviously, higher.

Eric Wangler: Just to be clear, that's a pricing solution or a budgeting solution.

Rob Stote: Yeah, that's a pricing solution, some sort of pricing or budgeting solution that they're using, which is great. And I think we obviously want that higher. I think the more that you can wrap technology around the data that you're looking at, the more you can wrap that and sort of build intelligence into the decisions that you're making and sort of be able to have data data-driven decisions, the better that you'll be.

Eric Wangler: It feels like the day of the legal pad pricing is behind us.

Rob Stote: Yes, Yellow Paper is gone.

Eric Wangler: So Rob and I have gone over a little bit of the stats from the report, just really skimming the top of some of the more interesting ones. But the report is loaded with information, intelligence around what's happening in the market. I urge you to download it. We've had a webinar with 300 attendees. There's clearly a big focus in the space on this data. Download the full pricing report and give us feedback. Tell us what you think, and we'd love to hear from you.