After a decade of digital transformation pressure and the recent whirlwind of generative AI, in-house teams are embracing a lower-lift way to get results: support that's immediate, embedded, and actually works.
Even though AI is barely in its adolescence, many legal teams are already at the tipping point of “enough.” Enough of platforms they don’t yet have the expertise to fully use. Enough of pilots that bring interesting learnings but aren’t yet ready for prime time. Enough of being told to "think strategically about AI"— while still buried under contract volume and inbox requests.
For a growing number of in-house teams, the answer isn't a new tool or a new hire. It's a new twist on an old model: AI-first out-tasking.
AI-first out-tasking can provide legal chiefs a fast-track means to hit the trifecta: achieving real progress in AI adoption and usage without big-bet technology investments, while generating material outcomes from AI.
New data underscores the current state of industry experience in AI: Factor’s just-published GenAI in Legal Benchmarking Report reveals that while 61.2% of legal departments have provided AI access to most or all team members, only 18.9% feel “very confident” using these tools. Nearly half (47.9%) admit they "can just about get by," while more than one in five (21.3%) report they "really need help."
This isn't just about technical literacy. It's about the widening gap between AI's theoretical potential and practical value in legal environments where time, expertise, and bandwidth are constrained.
Out-Tasking Isn’t the Poor Relation of Outsourcing Anymore
For years, legal departments faced a clear choice: scale up internally or outsource externally. Outsourcing entire workstreams (contracting, compliance reviews, legal research) promised predictable costs, global capacity, and long-term efficiencies. And in many cases, success followed.
But as a practical matter, making a long-term commitment to outsourcing end-to-end contracting processes was out of reach for many organizations — for example, those whose contracting mix was concentrated in very high complexity transactions.
And old-school out-tasking, by comparison, seemed merely tactical: a stopgap for one-off projects or surge support. Useful in a pinch, but rarely strategic.
But 2025 isn't 2015.
GenAI has entered the picture. And in its wake, a familiar but transformed model is re-emerging, one that's well-suited to legal's current moment: AI-enabled out-tasking.
As organizations grapple with the opportunities and challenges of AI, many are stuck in pilot purgatory, under pressure to prove ROI on AI investments, and operating with lean headcount. They're not looking to rebuild an operating model overnight. They're just looking for capacity, clarity, and to progress — fast
As a result, out-tasking is finding new relevance. In fact, it might be the most practical way to get started with GenAI and external enablement.
In this new model, out-tasking isn’t about handing over various tasks and still having to manage hand-offs. It’s about surgically embedding intelligent support directly into existing workflow via the organization’s current communication channels and tools (Slack, Teams, CLM). GenAI creates structured outputs and analysis, and legal professionals guide, validate, and manage quality. The model allows in-house legal teams to flex their level of involvement based on task complexity or risk.
Instead of standing up a fully managed service, teams start with small requests —contract analysis, redline reviews, clause extraction — and build from there. The relationship grows through outcomes, not through significant change programs and onboarding.
Why Out-Tasking Makes Sense in the GenAI Era
As an example of the new AI-enabled out-tasking model, Factor’s new SenseDesk brings a new set of possibilities to accelerate AI adoption, offering a flexible, modular structure that provides high-impact support in collaboration with in-house teams.
And because Factor teams sit behind the AI to review results and support tasks where needed, SenseDesk blends the speed of AI with the nuance of human judgment. That’s because even in a GenAI-driven world, trust and interpretation still matter.
The SenseDesk model handles more than just volume; it flexes across complexity, from sweeping a portfolio for audit clauses to reviewing indemnity language in vendor contracts.
It’s also fast to activate. As an AI-enabled, collaborative working service, Factor’s SenseDesk is able to turn on support in days, not months. And perhaps most importantly, it’s built to scale without demanding scale from the start. Out-tasking isn’t a strategic leap — it’s a smart first step that grows with your team’s needs and readiness.
The New Mood: Less AI Talk, More AI-Help
The GCs we work with all voice the same frustration: “We don’t need another roadmap. We need someone to just handle this.”
What does that look like in practice? For one global tech company, their internal legal ops team set up a Slack channel connected to Factor’s SenseDesk. Requests flowed in daily: “Can someone find all of the audit rights in this set of contracts?” “Can we cross-check indemnity carve-outs?” “How does this liability position compare to our risk guidelines?”
Instead of routing to a new vendor or logging a ticket, Factor’s AI did the first pass, with legal professionals from the SenseDesk team following up with clarifying questions. The results were packaged and returned in less time than a standard intake.
No procurement cycle. No change fatigue. Just capacity on tap. This is how AI makes sense for legal: not as a platform to learn, but as a partner to lean on.
The Realization: Help Is a Smarter Starting Point Than Hope
Legal teams aren’t abandoning transformation. They’re just coming at it from the side door. Instead of waiting for perfect alignment, they’re starting small with out-tasked, AI-accelerated legal services for targeted support (think clause review, markup triage, portfolio analysis) and learning what works by doing, not debating
It’s not outsourcing. It’s help. Right now. If you’re trying to do everything in-house and you don’t have the bandwidth or confidence — news flash — you don’t need another tool. You need another teammate.
Find out more about Factor’s SenseDesk here.
