India Inc deepens AI adoption to stay ahead of legal curve
Indian conglomerates are adopting AI to streamline legal work, reduce costs, and enhance decision-making.Summary
Indian conglomerates are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence to streamline legal operations, reduce costs, and enhance decision-making. The Aditya Birla Group recently launched a legal innovation center called 'Minerva' to make its legal function more agile and data-driven. Other large conglomerates, such as the Adani Group and Essar Group, are also integrating AI assets to manage the rising legal expenses, which have increased by 14% to over ₹86,500 crore in FY25. Industry experts note that AI is emerging as an infrastructure layer that allows legal teams to scale without a proportional increase in staff and budgets. The focus is on enabling legal teams to concentrate on judgment, strategy, and negotiation rather than routine tasks. This shift is also reshaping how corporates hire and interact with external law firms, as AI handles an increasing share of legal and compliance activities, fundamentally changing the operational landscape for banking and financial services over the next decade.
(Source：The Economic Times)