As legal AI adoption accelerates, one company has built its success on a deceptively simple principle: people first, technology second. Lexpo interviewed Bosse Langaas, CEO of Lexpo’26 Gold Sponsor Saga, to explore how the Norwegian legal AI pioneer is helping firms move from curiosity to confidence through structured training, transparent “glass-box” design, and co-creation with lawyers themselves. From the Saga Amplify programme to Saga Lab, the company’s philosophy of augmented lawyering places human expertise at the heart of every innovation—ensuring that lawyers evolve with AI, not around it.

Bosse, Saga emphasises training and adoption through initiatives like SAGA Amplify. Why do you believe change management is so critical for successful legal AI projects?

At Saga, the majority of our team comes from the legal industry—many of us are former lawyers—so we have a strong understanding of how lawyers think and work. The legal mindset is typically risk-averse, highly detail-oriented, and deeply protective of output quality. Lawyers have a strong sense of ownership over what they produce and an ingrained fear of errors. When you combine that mindset with an unfamiliar technology such as AI, it’s easy to see why confidence and trust become significant barriers to adoption.

Research shows that more than 70% of the value derived from using AI in legal work depends on how it’s used—not the technology itself. That’s why we place such emphasis on training and confidence-building. If a lawyer isn’t comfortable with AI, even a slight imperfection can cause them to reject it entirely. Ironically, they accept similar imperfections when reviewing an associate’s draft. So part of our mission with Saga Amplify is to help lawyers develop both the skills and the confidence to work effectively with AI—understanding not only what it can do, but also what it can’t do yet. That clarity builds trust and encourages consistent, meaningful adoption.

How are law firms currently using Saga to embed AI into their daily workflows? Can you share a concrete example?

We’ve now onboarded over 150 law firms, ranging from small boutique practices to larger firms with more than 400 users. Interestingly, the firm with the highest level of adoption isn’t one of the largest—it’s a Tier-2 Norwegian firm that initially purchased only our training programme, not the software itself. For six months, we focused purely on education: raising awareness, building internal champions, and running practical workshops. Once the entire firm was confident in how AI could enhance their work, they rolled out Saga across the organisation—and their usage metrics have been exceptional ever since.

This firm now uses Saga extensively for real estate, construction, and contract review matters, as well as selected litigation workflows. What’s interesting is the contrast between firms. While some prioritise early experimentation, others prefer a cautious, staged approach. One top-tier Nordic firm, for instance, instructs associates not to use AI at the start of a matter—they must first draft manually before applying AI. It’s a reminder that every firm has its own cultural path toward adoption, and our role is to support them wherever they are on that journey.

Many lawyers remain sceptical about AI replacing judgment and expertise. How do you position Saga to support rather than replace lawyers?

We often say that Saga isn’t building an “answering machine.” Our goal is to create a support system that assists lawyers throughout their lawyering process. We take a “glass-box” approach rather than a “black-box” one—ensuring that users can see and understand what’s happening behind the scenes. This transparency is essential for building trust and enabling lawyers to retain ownership of their work.

As the conversation around agentic workflows gains traction, our approach is to break complex tasks into manageable phases rather than fully automating them from start to finish. Some steps may be guided by prompting, others by agentic logic, but the lawyer always remains actively involved. By keeping them engaged in each stage of the process, we help them maintain control and accountability. That, in turn, fosters a more profound sense of ownership—something that’s vital for professional acceptance and long-term success.

Saga Lab provides firms with a safe space to explore and co-create AI use cases. How important is it for legal teams to experiment before rolling tools out more broadly?

Experimentation is absolutely critical. Through Saga Lab, we work hand in hand with firms to challenge existing workflows and test how AI can add value in specific practice areas. The lab team combines deep legal expertise with technical knowledge, so participants are constantly working with people who understand both worlds. Many of our staff have a legal background and a passion for technology, which enables us to quickly and effectively translate legal processes into practical AI use cases.

The co-creation aspect is key. When lawyers are directly involved in shaping and refining a use case, the resulting solution is far better aligned with real-world needs. We also maintain a strong local presence across our markets, with Saga Lab and adoption specialists working on the ground in the Nordics and the Netherlands. This proximity enables us to tailor our solutions to regional legal cultures and languages—something global providers often overlook.

Looking five years ahead, what role will lawyers play in shaping AI adoption in legal services?

Five years may not sound long, but considering how far we’ve come since generative AI entered the scene just two and a half years ago, it’s an eternity in AI time. Saga’s mission has always been to democratise access to quality legal technology—from large firms to sole practitioners. While AI will undoubtedly take over simpler, repetitive tasks, we don’t foresee any reduction in the overall need for lawyers. Legal work is becoming increasingly complex, not less.

What will change is how lawyers engage with technology. The challenge ahead is to ensure that new generations of lawyers are educated to work with AI, not around it. At Saga, we often speak about creating a bit of “friction” between lawyers and technology—healthy friction that stimulates critical thinking rather than blind reliance. We also invest in academic collaboration, working with universities in Oslo and the Netherlands to help shape the next wave of AI-literate legal professionals. In short, the future lawyer will be an active participant in designing and refining AI-driven processes.

Lexpo’26 will mark ten years of connecting legal innovators—what do you see as the single most significant driver for legal transformation in the decade to come?

There’s a new term circulating that we quite like: augmented lawyering. It perfectly captures where we think the profession is heading. The relationship between human expertise and technology will deepen rather than divide. As AI continues to mature, lawyers will be able to deliver better, faster, and fairer services—not just to clients, but to society at large.

We already see promising examples in areas such as criminal law, where technology can improve access to justice and case preparation. The next decade will bring a convergence of technologies beyond AI, and this synergy will redefine what it means to practise law. But one thing is clear to us at Saga: lawyers will not be replaced. They will evolve. The profession will survive and thrive—just in a more augmented form.