LinkSquares gathered our own legal department leaders and put them on the record for their expectations for legal technology in 2026. How much will artificial intelligence transform in-house legal work in the coming year -- and how much of the current AI contracts hype is premature or outright overblown?
The result was a set of five clear expert predictions for CLM and legal AI for 2026. You can read a summarized breakdown below, including quotes from our seasoned legal ops managers and expert in-house counsel, or watch these legal pros argue their cases here.
In the meantime, here's how LinkSquares Legal anticipates the next 12 months of CLM:
In 2026, the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions will evolve beyond a simple repository and workflow tool to become a core, "first-order" system of record within the enterprise. Similar to how CRM and ERP systems serve as the single source of truth for customer and financial data, respectively, CLMs will become the central hub for all contractual data. This shift will be driven by an increased focus on system integrations, linking the CLM with other business applications across legal, finance, sales, and procurement.
"AI is making it easier to extract information from contracts, and … [that] really brings forth the CLM as the core underlying system to drive a lot of the operational activities in the way you engage with your customers and vendors and other relationships." - Simon Schanche, VP, Operations, LinkSquares
The result will be a more holistic, data-driven approach to business operations, enabling real-time visibility into contractual risks, obligations, and opportunities. This will also mean more digital files, less paper copies, and a sunsetting of the last scanned PDFs. Above all, the relevant contractual information will appear in context in apps and workflows outside the CLM, where it provides the most value with the least friction -- all thanks to CLM integrations and AI.
AI's impact will move from shiny novelty to a necessity, especially as tools grow as scalable operations versus GPT wrappers. Legal professionals will no longer see AI as a threat, but as a crucial partner in their daily work. AI will handle the initial "first-pass" work (triaging contract requests, generating a first draft of a redline, etc.) automating the most time-consuming, tedious tasks. But these gains will come with risk.
"I think we've seen that in several [high-profile], very public incidents. And I think those kinds of things are gonna become more and more and more and more challenging for every organization. Not just in the legal department's own work, but also across the board in the organization." - Jonathan Greenblatt, VP, Legal, LinkSquares
While AI will free up lawyers to focus on higher-level strategic analysis, complex negotiations, and critical proofreading of AI-generated work, it will also require that lawyers consciously focus on ensuring that dependence on AI does not erode critical skills. The core value of a lawyer and legal professionals will shift from drafting and finding information to discerning, refining, and validating AI outputs, which will affect hiring, training, and talent evaluation practices. The legal teams that do not adopt this human-in-the-loop, AI-augmented approach could be seen as inefficient and outdated by their business partners, while the lawyers that cannot validate and enhance lowest-common-denominator AI output will simply be replaced by AI entirely -- or by professionals that can stay sharp even when AI is riding shotgun in their workflows.
"I think that with the current market trends and focus on costs and really honing that in, there will be a lot of focus on how to get scrappy from managing your technology. ... I think everyone's really thinking through, 'how can I make sure I'm managing this with the resources that I have in many instances, and how is the technology going to enable me to do this more efficiently?'" - Ashlyn Donohue, Director of Legal, LinkSquares
As legal technology becomes more complex and deeply integrated into business operations, the need for legal tech skills will be a demanding expectation. In theory, legal tech will only become easier to interact with as software advances and user interfaces simplify. But in the meantime, legal team members will be expected to manage their entire tech suite to its full potential.
"Having been close to RevOps functions … [it] being very close to the go-to-market tech stack and thinking about the role that contracts play in that ecosystem, I think we're gonna start to see more roles expecting LegalOps experience or legal systems experience. That's already occurred through integrations, but I think it'll perpetuate further into legal teams not having a LegalOps specialist necessarily residing in their team, but utilizing another internal function within RevOps to perform those activities for them." - Jonathan Greenblatt, VP, Legal, LinkSquares
If companies can’t achieve AI efficiencies with existing staff, companies will increasingly hire legal operations, legal technologists, or "legal prompt engineering specialists" who bridge the gap between legal practice and technology. These roles will be responsible for the implementation, management, and continuous improvement of the legal tech stack, including the CLM. If not within the legal team, this may fuel a growing intersection between legal operations and RevOps, as companies seek to align legal processes more closely with revenue-generating activities.
The widespread adoption of AI will bring with it significant legal and ethical considerations. In 2026, there will be a sharp increase in the materialization of these concerns in contract language.
"Looking at how foreign countries are handling [AI], how the US is handling it, and how [it's being separately handled] on a national and state-level basis." - Ashley Jones, Commercial Counsel, LinkSquares
"But I think until we get some clearer guidance that is more universal, there's gonna be a lot of scrutiny and asks around AI and its applicability and how it's going to be regulated and managed." - Ashley Jones, Commercial Counsel, LinkSquares
Contracts will start to include specific provisions, akin to security and privacy questionnaires, that address the use of AI technology by both parties. This new contractual diligence will cover everything from data security and intellectual property rights related to AI-generated content to statements of transparency regarding a party's use of AI in a transaction. This trend is a direct response to the tension between AI generation and individual rights, as well as a growing vigilance against security threats from bad actors.
Fueled by the efficiency gains from new CLM and AI tools, in-house legal departments will reclaim work that was traditionally outsourced to law firms.
"In other words, the in-house legal department will start doing even more legal work, especially as you start thinking vis-a-vis an outside counsel. … Have [external lawyers] do the last 10 percent. Your in-house legal team can save costs by doing the other 90 percent [with the help of AI]." - Jonathan Greenblatt, VP, Legal, LinkSquares
With AI automating generalist tasks, in-house teams can handle a greater volume of routine matters more quickly and at a lower cost. This will lead to a rebalancing of the in-house/outside counsel relationship. Law firms will increasingly be engaged for highly specialized, fixed-fee work, while corporate legal departments become the central hub for day-to-day legal operations and strategic business guidance. This shift reflects a move towards more efficient, data-driven in-house legal functions that can confidently manage a larger portion of the legal value chain.
In 2026, anything can happen. These predictions are just a few of the developments we’re anticipating. The legal landscape in 2026 will be transformed by AI, turning Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) into an essential, centralized data hub integrated across the business. This shift will move the legal professional's role from creator to editor, requiring a focus on validating AI outputs, and driving the need for specialized legal tech management roles, often in partnership with RevOps. Furthermore, a rise in contractual language will govern AI use, addressing legal and ethical concerns and increasing scrutiny. Ultimately, these efficiency gains will empower in-house legal teams to take greater control of the legal value chain, handling routine work with AI and using outside counsel only for the most specialized matters. This future is defined by a data-driven, AI-augmented, and in-house-controlled approach to legal operations. And we’re here to help with it all.
Need deeper discovery on the arguments we're making? Get the full transcript and watch the recording of our expert depositions here.
Ready to get a head start on your AI-enhanced legaltech future? Schedule your personalized LinkSquares demo today.