Partners at law and accounting firms say the one thing they most want from business-development technology is help finding new business in relationships their firms already have. But 78% say the relationship data at their firms is hard to act on, and most of those using AI for business development are using general-purpose chatbots that cannot see that data at all.

Those are among the findings of a survey of 123 partners released today by Introhive, the relationship intelligence company that captures and maps firm relationships from email and calendar data.

The report, AI and Business Development in Law and Accounting Firms, was conducted for Introhive by the strategy firm Thinktiv. It drew 42 responses from legal services, 42 from accounting and 39 from other professional services.

“Partners are being asked to grow the book with AI, and most of those using it are doing so with a chatbot that has no access to their firm’s relationship data,” Introhive CEO Lee Blakemore said in a statement accompanying the report.

In an exclusive interview yesterday with LawSites, I asked Blakemore what most surprised him about the findings. He said the results left him with “mixed emotions.”

“There’s this perception that firms and people are far more progressed than they really are,” he said. “I see all of the energy and all the momentum and all the rush to deploy AI, and it seems like it’s almost at a frantic pace right now.…

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