There was a major enhance within the adoption of synthetic intelligence-based instruments amongst regulation companies, with 30% of respondents now utilizing AI expertise in comparison with simply 11% in 2023, in line with the just-released 2024 version of the American Bar Affiliation’s Legal Technology Survey Report.
It finds that point financial savings and elevated effectivity stay the dominant perceived advantages of AI implementation in authorized observe.
The report, printed Wednesday by the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center, is predicated on a survey that gathered responses from 512 attorneys in personal observe throughout numerous agency sizes. Whereas the total report covers a spread of authorized expertise matters, I’m focusing right here on its findings concerning AI. I’ll have a look at different matters in future tales.
The survey finds that AI adoption throughout the authorized career practically tripled yr over yr, from 11% in 2023 to 30% in 2024. This progress spans all agency sizes, although bigger companies proceed to implement AI at a quicker tempo than their smaller agency counterparts. Amongst companies with 100 or extra attorneys, 46% report at present utilizing AI-based expertise instruments, up from 16% in 2023 and 23% in 2022.
Mid-sized companies additionally confirmed progress, with 30% of companies with 10-49 attorneys now utilizing AI instruments, in comparison with 11% in each 2023 and 2022. Even solo practitioners demonstrated important adoption will increase, with 18% now utilizing AI-based instruments, in comparison with 10% in 2023 and none in 2022.
Past present customers, a further 15% of respondents reported “critically contemplating” AI software purchases, suggesting continued progress in adoption is probably going within the close to time period.
Against this, 22% of respondents stated they didn’t know sufficient about AI to say whether or not their agency is utilizing it, and one other 18% stated they merely have no idea.
ChatGPT Leads in Adoption
Considerably confusingly, the survey report by no means defines “synthetic intelligence” to make clear whether or not it’s referring to the brand new breed of generative AI or to AI of any form. It by no means makes use of phrases comparable to “generative synthetic intelligence” or “massive language fashions.”
It appears, nonetheless, to be centered on gen AI, notably when it stories that, amongst companies at present utilizing or contemplating AI instruments, ChatGPT is the most well-liked resolution, with 52% of respondents indicating they use or are contemplating OpenAI’s general-purpose chatbot.
Nonetheless, the report says, adoption patterns diverse considerably by agency dimension. Smaller companies confirmed stronger choice for ChatGPT, with 64% of companies with 2-9 attorneys and 62% of solo practitioners utilizing or contemplating it, in comparison with simply 36% of companies with 100 or extra attorneys.
Authorized-specific AI instruments confirmed substantial adoption, notably in bigger companies. Thomson Reuters CoCounsel was used or into consideration by 26% of respondents total, with larger charges amongst companies with 10-49 attorneys (34%) and companies with 50-99 attorneys (33%). Equally, Lexis+ AI confirmed constant adoption throughout all agency sizes, with 24% of complete respondents utilizing or contemplating the platform.
Specialised authorized AI instruments comparable to Harvey AI (5.9%), Anthropic (5.3%), and Spellbook (3.0%) confirmed smaller however measurable adoption, primarily concentrated in bigger companies.
It seems from the report that the survey offered names of merchandise for respondents to select from, however that customers have been additionally in a position to write in names of merchandise or choose “different.”
Effectivity Stays Main Profit
When requested about an important advantages AI might present, 54% of respondents recognized “saving time/rising effectivity” as the first benefit, up from 44% in 2023. Doc administration and doc overview capabilities ranked second at 9%, whereas value discount was cited by simply 4.5% of respondents.
Nonetheless, issues concerning the expertise stay substantial. Accuracy of AI expertise was recognized as the highest concern by 75% of respondents, up considerably from 58% in 2023. Reliability of expertise (56%, up from 48%) and information privateness and safety issues (47%, up from 45%) rounded out the highest three issues.
The sample of issues confirmed consistency throughout agency sizes, although solo practitioners expressed notably decrease concern about information privateness and safety (24%) in comparison with companies with 10-49 attorneys (56%) and companies with 100 or extra attorneys (54%).
Mainstream Inside Three Years
The authorized career seems more and more satisfied of AI’s imminence, with 13% of respondents stating AI is “already mainstream” in authorized observe, up from simply 4% in 2023. A considerable 45% imagine AI will change into mainstream throughout the subsequent three years, in comparison with 39% in 2023 and solely 20% in 2022.
Solo practitioners confirmed the very best confidence in AI’s fast integration, with 53% anticipating mainstream adoption inside three years, whereas bigger companies have been considerably extra conservative of their projections, with 40% of companies with 100 or extra attorneys sharing this timeline expectation.
Solely 9% of respondents anticipate AI adoption to take greater than 5 years, and the share of respondents who indicated they “don’t know sufficient about AI to reply” dropped to 9% from 18% in 2023, suggesting rising familiarity with the expertise throughout the career.
AI Studying Strategies
As attorneys search to know and adapt to AI applied sciences, conventional instructional strategies stay distinguished. CLE seminars or webinars have been the most typical useful resource for studying about new applied sciences like AI, cited by 61% of respondents. Publications (37%), authorized information (34%), and different regulation companies (32%) have been additionally important sources of data.
Smaller companies confirmed larger reliance on CLE programming, with 66% of solo practitioners and 68% of companies with 2-9 attorneys consulting these assets, in comparison with 49% of companies with 100+ attorneys. Conversely, bigger companies confirmed higher tendency to seek the advice of publications (56% of companies with 100-499 attorneys) and authorized information sources (40% of companies with 500+ attorneys).
Authorized Analysis Is Main Use Case
Inside the broader context of authorized expertise use, the survey indicated that authorized analysis stays the dominant utility for AI instruments, with 35% of respondents reporting utilizing authorized analytics for conducting authorized analysis prior to now yr. Case or matter technique improvement (23%), understanding judges (17%), and predicting outcomes (13%) have been the subsequent commonest functions.
Bigger companies reported extra numerous AI functions, with companies of 100+ attorneys displaying larger charges of utilization for enterprise improvement (23-30% in comparison with 6.5% of solo practitioners) and understanding opposing counsel (21-27% in comparison with 4.8% of solo practitioners).
The complete Legal Technology Survey Report is printed in 5 volumes that cowl On-line Analysis, Know-how Fundamentals & Safety, Legislation Workplace Know-how, Advertising and marketing & Communication Know-how, and Life & Follow.
The mixed report containing all 5 volumes is out there for buy for $1,600 or, for ABA members, $1,400.
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