How to Run a 30-Day AI Pilot for Law Firm Business Development
Law firms are experimenting with AI across nearly every part of their business, but business development presents a particular opportunity because so much time is spent gathering information, researching companies and people, preparing lawyers for meetings and keeping up with developments across clients and prospects.
A focused 30-day pilot can help a firm determine where AI can make that work more efficient and useful without requiring a firmwide rollout from the start. Choose a small group of clients or prospects, involve the lawyers and business development professionals who know those relationships and use the month to test whether AI can help the team stay better informed, prepare more efficiently and identify developments that warrant attention.
The pilot can focus on a few practical questions: Can the team prepare for client conversations faster? Can it identify meaningful company developments earlier? Can it connect those developments to existing relationships and relevant firm capabilities? Does the information ultimately lead to useful business development activity?
Here’s one way to structure the 30 days.
Week 1: Choose the Clients, Prospects and People
Start with a manageable group of priority clients and prospects. Ten to 20 companies can provide enough activity to test the process while keeping the pilot focused. These might include important clients, prospects the firm has been pursuing, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies or organizations connected to a particular practice or industry initiative.
For each organization, identify the lawyers involved and capture the context the firm already has. That can include who owns the relationship, what work the firm has done, which practices have been involved, who the important contacts are, whether anyone has met with the company recently and whether there is an active pitch, opportunity or planned outreach.
This context helps the team understand why a development matters. An acquisition, executive appointment or financing becomes much more useful for business development when the firm can connect it to the people who know the organization, previous work and conversations that have already taken place.
Week 2: Decide Which Developments Matter
The next step is defining what the team actually wants to know. For a corporate client, that could include acquisitions, financings, executive changes, expansion into new markets, litigation, regulatory developments or other significant business activity. For a private equity sponsor, the team might monitor new investments, exits, add-ons, fundraising activity and developments involving portfolio companies.
The signals will vary depending on the client, industry and practice. Ask the lawyers and BD professionals involved in the pilot which developments would cause them to pay attention and potentially reach out. That exercise can be useful because it requires the team to define the information that matters to the relationship.
Lawyers already receive a significant amount of information through newsletters, alerts, news updates, email and other sources. The pilot can test whether AI helps narrow that universe and gives the team a more useful starting point, with relevant developments gathered in a way that makes them easier to review and evaluate.
Week 3: Connect Intelligence to Relationships and Action
During the third week, pay close attention to what happens after a relevant development is identified. This is where the firm’s relationship knowledge becomes particularly important.
If a company announces an acquisition, look at who at the firm knows the company, whether the firm has worked on previous transactions and whether lawyers in other practices have experience that could become relevant. If a client appoints a new General Counsel, determine whether anyone at the firm knows that person from a previous role or has another connection that could provide a natural reason to reach out. If a private equity sponsor acquires a new portfolio company, look at the firm’s relationships with the sponsor, management team and company and whether there are areas where the firm may be able to help.
For developments the team decides to pursue, record the next step and assign someone to it. That might involve a personal note from a partner, an introduction to another lawyer, additional research, sharing a relevant article or adding the development to the agenda for the next client team meeting. Some developments may be useful background without requiring immediate outreach, and learning to distinguish between the two is an important part of the pilot.
Week 4: Review What the Team Actually Used
At the end of the month, evaluate the pilot based on what the intelligence helped the team accomplish. Look at which developments led to client or prospect conversations, whether lawyers learned something early enough to act on it and whether meeting preparation became faster or easier. The team may also have uncovered relationships, company developments or potential opportunities that weren’t previously on its radar.
Review the areas that created additional work as well. Identify developments that weren’t relevant, information that required significant verification and instances where useful intelligence reached the wrong people or didn’t result in follow-up. This can help the firm refine the companies it monitors, the signals it prioritizes and the way information reaches lawyers.
The review can also reveal issues that have little to do with the AI itself. A firm may discover that its relationship data needs improvement, that ownership of certain clients isn’t clear or that useful information frequently stalls because no one is responsible for deciding what happens next. Those findings can help the firm improve the broader business development process.
What to Measure During the Pilot
A 30-day pilot can be measured using a small number of indicators connected to actual business development activity. These might include relevant developments identified, client or prospect conversations prompted by the intelligence, introductions made, meetings scheduled, opportunities uncovered and follow-up actions completed.
Time saved on research and meeting preparation is another useful measure. If a BD professional previously spent a significant amount of time gathering company, industry and people information before a meeting and can now begin with a consolidated briefing, that efficiency matters even when it doesn’t immediately result in a new matter.
Qualitative feedback from the lawyers involved can provide additional context. Ask whether the information was relevant, timely and specific enough to be useful and whether they would want to continue receiving it after the pilot. Their responses can help determine which parts of the process are worth expanding and which need to be adjusted.
Where Gatsby Fits Into the Pilot
Gatsby can provide the intelligence layer for this type of 30-day test by helping law firm teams research companies and people and stay current on organizations that matter to their business development priorities.
With Gatsby Intel, teams can research companies and individuals when preparing for a client meeting, pitch, prospect conversation or other business development activity. Instead of manually gathering information from multiple places, the team can begin with a more consolidated view and spend more of its time determining what the information means for the relationship.
Gatsby Aware can support the ongoing part of the pilot by helping teams monitor selected clients, prospects and other priority companies for relevant developments. This gives the firm an opportunity to test whether more consistent intelligence helps lawyers identify useful reasons to reconnect, prepare for conversations and stay current on the companies they care about.
The technology supports the research and monitoring process while lawyers and business development professionals provide the relationship knowledge and judgment needed to determine what deserves attention and what happens next. That combination is particularly important in law firm business development, where the significance of a development often depends on information that is specific to the firm and its relationships.
What Happens After the 30 Days?
At the end of the pilot, the firm should have specific examples of where AI helped, where the workflow needs improvement and which use cases make sense to continue. The next phase might involve adding more priority clients, extending monitoring to a practice or industry group, incorporating intelligence into regular client team meetings or using AI more consistently for meeting and pitch preparation.
Starting with a defined 30-day test gives the firm an opportunity to build the process around the way its lawyers and business development professionals actually work. The most useful outcome is a clearer understanding of how better intelligence can become part of everyday business development, from preparing for conversations and staying current on clients to recognizing developments that create a reason to reconnect.
Gatsby helps law firms research companies and people, monitor important clients and prospects and incorporate business development intelligence into their everyday work. Visit trygatsby.ai to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many clients or prospects should a law firm include in an AI business development pilot?
A group of approximately 10 to 20 priority companies can provide enough activity to evaluate the workflow while keeping the pilot manageable. The exact number will depend on the size of the team, the types of companies involved and the developments the firm wants to monitor.
What should a law firm track during a 30-day AI pilot?
Focus on measures connected to actual business development activity, including useful developments identified, client or prospect conversations, introductions, meetings, opportunities and completed follow-up. Time saved on research and meeting preparation can also help the firm understand whether the workflow is becoming more efficient.
Can AI identify business development opportunities for lawyers?
AI can help identify and organize developments that may warrant attention, while lawyers and business development professionals provide the relationship knowledge and context needed to evaluate them. That combination helps the team determine whether a development creates a reason for outreach, additional research or another business development action.
What happens after the pilot?
The results can help the firm decide which parts of the workflow to continue or expand. The pilot may support adding more clients and prospects, extending the approach to additional practices or industries or incorporating the intelligence into existing client team, pitch preparation and business development processes.