Is AI about to get too expensive for lawyers?

Ben, you broke the story about Lagora changing its pricing model.

Uh, talk us through what's going on.

So I spoke to several innovation chiefs that said Lagora had spoken to their firms in recent months about the legal tech's intention to change its billing model away from seat-based pricing, which sees firms charged based on the number of users, towards consumption-based pricing, which is based on usage.

And this is like to happen when their contracts come up for renewal.

Now, when The Lawyer went to Lagora for comment, it confirmed those plans, and it said that the need to switch was being driven by more of its functionality being agentic.

Now, this move comes, um, as the AI giants such as Anthropic and AI have also switched some of their products to consumption-based pricing.

Now, the kind of the reaction in that story that I managed to pick up is that many innovation leaders that I spoke to were kind of accepting of the change and, you know, expected that this was gonna happen, uh, you know, somewhat inevitable now the foundation models are priced in this way.

But one or two have been kind of shaken by the move.

I just wanted to read one of those quotes.

This is one innovation head, um, that was informed about Lagora's intention to change its billing model said, and I quote, "It hasn't been received well by the board members, and it makes my job harder, and it strains the partnership approach we all want with our tech providers." Um, they went on to say, quote, "We are not ignoring their cost pressures, but we are evaluating alternative providers and consider-- considering reprioritizing Lagora." So it's really shaken, um, some firms even if others, um, are sort of, uh, accepting and ready for the change.

So a little bit of a mixed reaction at best, uh, to Lagora's move there, Ben.