There’s clear data from Australia and the United States showing that people now turn to online tools to interpret their legal issues long before they contact a professional.
Across Australia, people are approaching legal decisions differently. When someone has a problem, their first instinct isn’t to call a lawyer. It’s to use AI.
Tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode let people interpret their situation, explore potential paths and form early assumptions. By the time they reach a firm’s website, they’ve already compared practices, set expectations and filtered out anything that doesn’t feel credible.
This shift is moving genuine enquiries further down the decision journey. It also means legal brands need to earn visibility earlier and across more fragmented touchpoints than ever before.
In 2026, firms that adapt to this AI-led behaviour will stay present during the moments that shape a client’s confidence. Those who don’t risk becoming almost invisible in the early stages of the journey.
Five years ago, the first step for most people was to call a lawyer or have a conversation with someone who’d been through something similar. Today, the first step is asking an AI tool what the issue might mean and whether it needs escalation.
A typical journey in family law now looks something like this:
Even though they haven’t visited any firm’s website at this stage, AI is already drawing from the content that legal brands have published. The firms with clear, structured information are the ones shaping early understanding, and that influence begins long before someone becomes ready to make contact.
Most legal issues require a professional, but the client’s choice of professional is now shaped before any firm has had the chance to speak with them. The firm they contact is the one that fits the assumptions they’ve already formed, not the one with the strongest capability.
This means legal brands have far less control over whether they’re selected. The only way to regain some influence is to appear in the information AI tools surface at the very beginning of the journey. If AI draws on your content, your brand becomes part of the client’s early understanding. If it doesn’t, a competitor fills that space instead.
Legal brands can regain influence by focusing on the areas AI relies on most when shaping early understanding.
1. Identify what clients are searching for, then answer those questions clearly. Use tools like Google Search Console, AnswerThePublic or Semrush to identify the real queries people ask before contacting a lawyer, and build content that answers those questions in direct, plain language.
2. Structure and optimise your content so AI can interpret it. Ask your agency to structure key pages with strong headings, definitions, steps and summaries, and ensure the technical SEO is sound (indexing, schema markup, internal linking). This is the foundation AI tools rely on when choosing which sources to surface.
3. Keep your core legal pages updated. Review and refresh your main service and FAQ-style pages every quarter so the information remains accurate and current. AI tools prioritise content that’s recent and consistent.
4. Use Paid Search to stay visible when clients move from research to action. Target the queries people use once they’re ready to contact a firm to ensure your brand is present at the moment early research turns into real intent.
5. Maintain a steady pattern of credible reviews. Put a simple monthly process in place for collecting reviews. Recent feedback strengthens the client’s confidence once they move beyond AI research and begin comparing firms.
Your prospective clients are forming expectations long before you have the chance to speak with them. If you aren’t present in those early moments, you’ll end up competing for attention after they’ve already made up their mind.
2026 is the year to take back some of that early influence. The firms that do will be the ones clients recognise, trust and ultimately choose.
Four insights from our team, delivered once a month. Subscribe below.