A recent report by Forrester predicts that businesses will expect their IT departments across Europe to do more with less when it comes to their budgets, with a 3.6% decline in IT spending forecasted for 2023. At least for the remainder of the year, geopolitical tensions, high inflation and the devaluation of the pound are projected to put the UK economy in recession. But what does this mean for technology adoption? Forrester points out that the easier wins have already been had, with communications platforms like Zoom and Slack having become a permanent fixture in our working lives since the pandemic began in 2020. But now businesses are expected to tackle much larger operational challenges, from supply chain insecurity to regulatory compliance, and all with a frozen or reduced technology budget.

On the front lines of dealing with these issues are in-house legal departments, who will inevitably be the first to feel the effects of reduced IT budgets and enhanced cost pressures. For that very reason, investing in a next-generation software which automates manual processes, saves time and helps drive business growth will be key to helping legal teams and their organisations to weather the storm that 2023 brings. But this has to be balanced with demonstrable results - as this article from Computing highlights, a tangible ROI is going to be essential to get CFO sign-off in this economic climate.

AI can help legal teams automate a range of repetitive and administrative tasks that make up an organisation’s daily operations, such as contract management and workflow allocation. These efficiency gains will be crucial in ensuring headcount remains steady despite an increased in-tray and freeing up teams to proactively investigate other more pressing commercial issues. For instance, rapidly scaling technology company, proSapient, recently reported that adopting Luminance’s AI negated the need for a new legal hire on day one of rollout, and has earned back up to 40% of its lawyers’ time on admin tasks alone, every single week. In the US, sales functions at Koch Industries are using Luminance to generate their own compliant sales contracts, reducing bottlenecks with Legal and decreasing time to signature.

Be it through an automated first pass review of incoming contracts, automatic workflow allocation or an AI-powered Contract Repository which allows lawyers to locate answers to key business questions instantly, organisations around the world are doubling down on automation and utilising AI to help manage the challenges presented by the current economic climate.

Besides, there is cause for optimism! According to Forrester, 90% of technology spend growth in 2024 will come from software and services adoption – so hunker down, find the technology that can easily demonstrate its worth and help your business best the current storm.