7. User research and innovation will shape client experience of legal products.

Our findings: A deeper understanding of users’ experience is increasingly becoming the driving force behind the offerings of all kinds of companies. Companies are using data and design to predict consumers’ desires, aiming to appear in their lives before they even know what they want.

The opportunity: Firms will fortify relationships with clients not only through great customer service, but by using everything they know about them to anticipate their future needs. The firms that are best at this will build innovation pipelines around their understanding of entire industries, approaching their clients with new opportunities instead of simply reacting to their problems.