AI Won’t Replace Relationships, But It Will Expose The Weak Ones
There’s lots of commentary around about whether – or more to the point, when - AI will replace lawyers, accountants, consultants and other professional advisers. As regular readers of my posts will know, I think the more immediate question is a different one:
What happens to a professional relationship when the information, analysis and routine advice it was built around becomes easier for the client to obtain elsewhere?
Which is to say, AI will not replace strong client relationships. Trust, judgement, empathy, commercial understanding and personal credibility will continue to remain – for now at least - deeply human sources of value.
But what AI will do is expose those relationships that were never particularly strong to begin with.
So in this BD Tips Wednesday post I’ll be asking:
If a client relationship depends primarily on answering routine questions, preparing standard documents or possessing information the client cannot easily access elsewhere, is it really a relationship of value?
Because, as we already know, AI is steadily reducing the scarcity of knowledge (in many cases that’s not actually right, more “perceived knowledge” than “actual knowledge”, but that can be a debate for another day).
So, what can we do to stop this AI tidal wave taking away all of our clients?
Audit the relationship: It may not be as strong as you think!
Humans often overestimate the strength of the relationships they have with other people in their network. Who has heard the one about the General Counsel sending their child to the same school as the partner and therefore the tender is a done thing?
Surely I cannot be the only person to have heard that one (several times)!
Sending a child to the same school as yours, regular instructions, prompt payment and positive feedback can all create the impression of loyalty, but sometimes that relationship is simply a convenient one to have in a moment in time.
What AI will do is help clients distinguish between advisers who deliver tasks and advisers who improve decisions. That distinction will become increasingly important as routine work becomes faster, more standardised and easier to compare.
A strong relationship exists when the client believes the adviser understands the broader commercial context, anticipates issues, challenges assumptions appropriately and helps them navigate uncertainty. The value is not merely in producing the answer, it’s in helping the client understand which answer matters, what could happen next and what they should do about it.
AI will raise the bar for human interaction
As AI improves the speed, availability and accuracy of information, clients are unlikely to become less demanding of their advisers. In fact, they will likely become more demanding.
Why?
Because they will expect professionals to arrive better prepared, identify patterns more quickly and spend less time repeating information that could have been gathered beforehand.
In other words, they’ll expect you to be prepared - you cannot bluff it any longer.
They will also expect conversations to move beyond technical explanations and towards implications, priorities and decisions.
All of this will create important business development opportunities for the savvy lawyer who uses AI to help prepare for a client meeting, review previous matters, identify emerging sector issues and develop more relevant questions.
Used well, AI will create more time for the parts of the relationship that require curiosity, judgement and genuine engagement.
The risk is that professionals will use AI to make more noise producing more emails, more news alerts and even more generic content. And that approach will be a relationship killer.
Five questions that test the strength of a client relationship
If you want to know whether a relationship is genuinely strong, ask yourself:
1. Do I understand the client’s business beyond the work they currently give me?
Knowing the matter is not the same as knowing the client. You should understand their commercial priorities, internal pressures, growth plans and principal risks.
2. Does the client involve me before a problem becomes an instruction?
Strong relationships move upstream. The adviser becomes part of the thinking process, not simply the person engaged to execute a decision already made.
3. Can I explain the value I provide beyond technical expertise?
Expertise remains essential, but it is increasingly expected. The stronger value proposition may be better judgement, reduced risk, faster decision-making or the ability to connect different issues.
4. Would the relationship survive if the key contact left?
A relationship with one individual is not necessarily a relationship with the client organisation. Strong accounts contain several meaningful connections across different roles and levels.
5. When did I last create value without sending an invoice?
A useful introduction, a timely observation or a commercially relevant question can demonstrate that you are invested in the client’s success, not merely their next instruction.
The new relationship advantage
In an AI-enabled market, the strongest advisers will not compete with technology by trying to prove they know more facts. They will use technology to deepen their understanding, improve their responsiveness and have better conversations.
They will also recognise that trust cannot be automated. A client still needs confidence that their adviser understands the nuances, will exercise sound judgement and will be present when the situation becomes difficult.
Paradoxically those qualities become more valuable when information is abundant and the client must decide what to believe, what not to believe, and how to act.
