How Legal Ops Teams Are Navigating the AI Transformation

In an era of rapidly evolving AI capabilities, lingering tech uncertainty, stagnant legal budgets, and rising contract complexity, legal operations plays a crucial role. 

Legal operations teams are the glue between legal and the rest of the organization. They translate needs, coordinate services, deploy software, and look for better ways of working.

Sandy MacDonnell, senior director and head of legal operations at Docusign offers a view into a typical day in legal ops, how the role is changing, where AI is delivering the biggest impact, key takeaways from CLOC 2026, and practical ways other leaders can drive success.

What are the daily responsibilities of a legal operations leader?

Every day is different, and no day goes to plan. Legal operations is constantly coordinating with the in-house legal team and cross-functional stakeholders from HR, sales, marketing, finance, and IT. They field calls, Slack pings, last-minute requests, and next-day turnarounds, which leaves little time for deep thinking, planning, and strategy.

MacDonnell paints the picture: “I walk into the office in the morning and have time blocked on my calendar to work on something. But sure enough, someone wants to speak to me during that time, so I don’t actually get to the task I’d blocked off my time to do.”

How is AI changing the role of legal operations?

The role of legal operations has been expanding over the last 20 years. Today, teams don’t just ensure contracts get signed and invoices get paid. They run objectives and key results (OKRs), set goals, and answer strategic questions about budgets, headcounts, process efficiency, and sector knowledge. On top of that, they’re now architects and builders—not just of intake queues and workflows, but of AI agents that enable self-service across the business.

“We're really much more of a business partner to the rest of the organization.”

Implementing technology has always been part of the job, but AI has radically shifted how MacDonnell’s team approaches it. 

“I think the biggest change is the pace at which people expect to be able to get answers and deliver services,” she says. “It used to be: I’m going to implement this software tool. It’s going to take me a year. I’m going to do all of this user testing. I’m going to bring in all these stakeholders.” Today, legal ops teams are no longer just tool implementers; they’re tool builders.

What were the major takeaways from CLOC 2026?

AI has dominated the discussion at the annual Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) Global Institute for several years now. But in 2026, the tenor of the conversation changed.

“Two years ago, it was AI everything,” says MacDonnell. “Last year was a rush to buy and invest if you had the budget. It felt more like a box-checking exercise."

For example, some companies have adopted point solutions and legal-specific AI tools, only to find that limited integration with other systems has reduced the value they expected. Others have taken the approach of building on enterprise-wide tools, leveraging those supported by their IT organizations rather than legal-specific tools. 

But MacDonnell says weighing trade-offs is nothing new in legal ops. It’s a classic buy-versus-build decision. A core part of the role, she adds, is laying out what’s possible, surfacing risks, and letting teams make informed decisions. 

How does AI improve legal operations key performance indicators (KPIs) and OKRs?

AI-integrated tools directly improve legal ops OKRs by accelerating contract turnaround times. By adding negotiation playbooks into Docusign AI-Assisted Review (part of the Docusign IAM platform), Docusign legal teams achieved measurable efficiency gains:

• NDAs: Saves 15 minutes per first-pass review

• MSAs: Saves 30 to 60 minutes per long-form contract review

Additionally, teams use Docusign Agreement Manager to automate manual contract metadata tagging, eliminating routine data entry. Custom AI agents can even handle initial responses to low-complexity sales requests.

Together, these capabilities allow legal teams to manage rising contract volumes, channel resources toward underfunded needs, and focus human expertise where it matters most, without necessarily adding headcount or outside counsel spend.

What can legal ops leaders do to find success in the AI era? 

As tools and challenges evolve, MacDonnell shares three cornerstones that legal ops leaders need to be successful in this new era of AI.

3 critical skills for legal operations leaders

Legal ops leaders have an important opportunity to shape the future of the business, empowering attorneys, increasing operational agility, and shepherding AI transformation.

Built with native AI engine Docusign Iris, the Docusign Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform serves as a strategic solution for legal operations workflows. It automates end-to-end contract lifecycles, delivers intelligent contract analysis, and integrates across enterprise systems to drive legal department efficiency.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What does a typical day look like for legal operations leaders?

A: A typical day in legal operations involves managing cross-functional workflows between legal, sales, finance, HR, and IT, while balancing reactive administrative requests with long-term strategic technology planning.

Q: How is AI changing the legal operations role?

A: AI accelerates the pace of technology implementation. Legal ops teams now use AI to automate first-pass contract redlines, extract metadata, and support higher contract volumes without added headcount.

Q: What were the biggest legal technology insights from CLOC 2026?

A: The primary takeaway from CLOC 2026 was a market shift from speculative AI adoption to strict ROI justification. Legal departments are prioritizing software integration, measurable time savings, and platform-wide utility over isolated AI point solutions.