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GenAI has become a major focus in the legal industry, but its adoption comes with challenges. While many firms have access to GenAI tools, concerns about ethics, intellectual property, privacy, and client data security have slowed widespread implementation. Most firms are cautious, planning to adopt GenAI either alongside peers or slightly later, with full adoption expected to take a year or more.
Clients hope GenAI will reduce legal research costs, but there's little data to confirm this. Early adoption costs, particularly for RIS (Research and Information Services) departments, are significant, potentially requiring budget adjustments. Despite this, most firms are not hiring specifically for GenAI-related roles or seeking those skills in new hires.
Training on GenAI tools will be essential, as nearly all survey respondents anticipate a need for it, though few expect significant changes in research request volumes.
Budget constraints remain a key issue, especially for firms outside the top tier. While many firms are not increasing budgets for GenAI now, vendors may push costlier upgrades over time, similar to past trends with other technologies.
Reallocation of budgets since survey inception
The survey also highlights a significant shift from print to electronic resources in legal research libraries between 2020 and 2024.
- Print spending: Firms reduced print resource investment by 65%, from $772K in 2020 to $267K in 2024.
- Electronic spending: Investment in electronic resources rose 38%, from $4M in 2020 to $5.7M in 2024.
- Spending ratio: For every $1 spent on print in 2024, $21 was spent on electronic resources, compared to a $1 to $5 ratio in 2020.
This shift is driven by increased remote work, a transition to electronic versions of print publications, and expanded content and features on traditional platforms like LexisNexis and Westlaw.
Additionally, the number of electronic resources tracked in the survey grew by 66% (from 68 in 2020 to 113 in 2024), reflecting both a shift to digital and new investments in emerging tools.
Sole provider trends
Currently, 75% of firms maintain both LexisNexis and Westlaw, a "dual provider" approach, due to concerns about losing content and the challenges of transitioning between platforms.
As both companies invest heavily in GenAI-driven platforms and acquire standalone products to create all-in-one legal solutions, the pressure to choose a sole provider is increasing. Firms face added complexity and costs from adopting bundled product suites, making the decision to consolidate or remain dual-provider more challenging in today's evolving landscape.
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