15% of lawyers at large law firms are ‘now dependent on AI’ to do their job, a survey by LexisNexis in the UK has found. For inhouse this dependency also stood at a notable 13% – indicating that legal AI has well and truly become embedded now across the profession. Plus, those numbers will only increase.

Moreover, 34% of the 500-plus lawyers surveyed said that they used AI tools for legal work every day, and 32% ‘multiple times per week’. So, around two-thirds of lawyers are really using AI frequently.

They also surfaced that the top three use cases are: drafting, legal research, and document review, which is to be expected.

Understandably, the vast majority were still concerned about a potential risk for hallucinations and errors from AI tools, and equally understandably many favoured AI systems that could provide reassurance around accuracy and the use of verified sources – something that the major legal data providers can do.

One other survey finding was that the majority also felt that AI use is leading to the general public, and their own clients, getting an incorrect understanding of legal issues – something that connects to yesterday’s survey by Justice about the wider use of chatbots.

It shows – especially on the usage and dependence points – that legal AI has become a critical part of many lawyers’ lives, in fact so much so that a notable number could not do their work without it.…

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