Shoosmiths offers £1m bonus tied to AI usage across the firm

Shoosmiths has become the first major UK law firm to tie a firm-wide bonus to AI usage, offering staff a share of a £1 million pot if they collectively hit one million Microsoft Copilot prompts in the next financial year.

The firm says the bonus is part of its wider collegiate bonus pool and available to all staff.

Shoosmiths is a Microsoft partner and early adopter of Copilot - the tech company’s genAI tool - across its operations.

It says that if every Shoosmiths staff member uses Copilot just four times per working day, the one million prompt target will be comfortably exceeded.

Usage will be tracked and staff will receive monthly updates on progress to boost adoption.

Bigger picture

While many mid-sized firms have launched pilots of AI tools, Shoosmiths looks like it's making AI adoption a measurable, incentivised priority - a signal that client-facing value, rather than experimentation, is now the goal.

Shoosmiths has already introduced new roles to support its AI transition, including innovation leads, a head of legal innovation and a new data manager. It's also launched internal drop-in sessions, workshops and an AI knowledge hub to support uptake.

What they said

Shoosmiths CEO David Jackson said the initiative is about embracing change and "using technology to raise the bar on client service."

He added:

"We don’t fear AI - it won’t replace our people. Instead, it frees them to spend more time on the human-to-human work that really matters: solving problems, building trust, and supporting clients through complexity."