The adoption of legal tech has, more than ever before, become a focal point for the legal industry, driven in no small part by the increasing prominence of GenAI solutions. Over the past year, the industry has gained a clearer understanding of these technologies’ capabilities and limitations. This growing familiarity has prompted critical questions about the future of legal practice:
- Are the outputs reliable, and is the technology sufficiently mature for legal applications?
- Do the potential advantages of adoption outweigh the costs and risks?
- How seamlessly can these tools integrate with established workflows and systems?
- Should firms leveraging AI pass cost savings on to their clients?
In-house counsel are already experimenting with and rolling out GenAI tools for drafting provisions or even entire contracts, often passing these drafts to external counsel for review with the expectation of only minimal adjustments.
This development reflects a broader shift in how legal services are delivered, with technology increasingly shaping the dynamic between in-house teams and external counsel.
To explore the implications of these advancements, Definely conducted market research involving over 200 legal professionals. The ensuing report delves into the findings, uncovering key trends and assessing how legal tech – and GenAI in particular – is transforming the delivery of legal services.
Some key findings include:
- For 64% of the people surveyed, security and confidentiality are a top concern;
- 46% of UK in-house lawyers believe they are lagging behind firms in AI adoption;
- 22% of UK respondents are satisfied with legaltech ROI compared to 51% in the US; and
- 50% of corporate counsel remain uncomfortable with GenAI.
Definely’s co-founder and chief strategy officer Feargus MacDaeid said: “In a field where a single word can change the entire meaning of a contract or verdict, 80% accuracy simply isn’t good enough. The deeper question is whether the improvement in these models is sufficient to justify the cost, especially when considering the potential for error propagation in complex legal scenarios.”
You can download the report HERE