Almost all—95% of UK legal professionals surveyed—expect generative AI tools to have a noticeable impact on the practice of law.
But while 70% of in-house counsel say they will expect their firms to use AI, only 55% of firms think their clients will expect it. Digging deeper, almost half (49%) of in-house counsel expect their law firms to be using AI in the next 12 months. Of this 49%, one in ten expect their firms to be already using AI. Moreover, 82% of in-house counsel expect their law firms to make them aware of the use of generative AI tools.
Only 8% of clients do not want AI used on their work. In contrast, 24% of law firms believe their clients would not want them to use AI.
Asked to give examples where AI can be used, two-thirds of respondents said researching matters, 59% said briefing documents and 47% said document analysis. Lawyers in larger firms saw potential for due diligence (46%) and business development activity (40%).
Nearly a third of respondents at small law firms and mid-sized law firms are already exploring opportunities for AI in the workplace, compared to double that at large firms, 47% of in-house, 20% of the Bar and 14% of public sector lawyers.
However, lawyers are also aware of the risks—two-thirds of respondents have mixed feelings about AI.
‘When freely available AI tools don't have access to the relevant data, they have a tendency to make up the answers, or hallucinate,’ says Alison Rees-Blanchard, head of TMT legal guidance at LexisNexis.
‘This means any generated output must be checked thoroughly, as open-source generative AI does not always identify its source. However, when trained on a closed source and taught not to deviate, the results are exponentially more accurate.’
The report, ‘Generative AI and the future of the legal profession’, published this week, is based on surveys of 1,175 legal professionals in the UK in May and June.
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