Corporate clients are beginning to require law firms bidding for their business to commit to using generative AI, according to the latest snapshot of the technology’s adoption in the legal sector. 

The research, by information and technology giant Thomson Reuters, shows the percentage of firms and in-house departments saying they currently use AI jumped sharply in the past year - from 14% to 26%. Clients are responsible for at least part of that growth: 59% of corporate law department respondents said they want their law firms to use AI, presumably in the hope of lower bills. Some 8% of clients are specifying in their tender documents that law firms use generative AI.  

Read more

However the Thomson Reuters report found that only 20% of organisations using generative AI are measuring the return on investment. Of those that do, 79% are tracking cost savings, 64% employee usage, 51% employee satisfaction and 38% client satisfaction.

According to the report, the biggest threat posed by generative AI is enabling unauthorised practise by non-lawyers or the technology itself. Only 15% of respondents said that their own role was at risk. 

Steve Assie, general manager at Thomson Reuters, said: 'A consensus is building, and one we firmly believe, that GenAI is not going to replace lawyers, it is going to be used as a tool by them. A lawyer will still need to review and verify the output of any GenAI tool which is why the use of GenAI by untrained and unregulated members of the public to answer legal questions is seen as a risk.'