As more in-house legal teams plan to use generative artificial intelligence in the name of cost-cutting efficiency, suppliers of relatively routine work are updating their services.
These so-called alternative legal services providers (ALSPs) have evolved since they started out as disrupters to the legal market two decades ago. Now the transformative potential of the new technology has led to a push to offer new services, relying heavily on technology and offering software tools, often via a subscription-based arrangement.
“The ambition is not only a transition from being ‘legal support providers’ to being ‘legal advice providers’, but also to incorporate tech in a big way,” says Mari Sako, professor of management studies at Oxford university’s Saïd Business School. She also contributed to Thomson Reuters’ Alternative Legal Services Providers 2025 report.
When the alternative providers emerged, their innovation was to take on lower-cost, routine work that companies’ in-house legal departments otherwise sent to law firms. They offered to get the work — such as managing contracts or storing documents — done more efficiently and affordably. This was welcome for corporate legal teams under pressure from the rest of the business to achieve more and cost less.
