The legal industry has earned its reputation as a slow adopter of technology. But individual lawyers in their adoption of generative AI are proving less so. Generative AI is amazing at the things legal organizations do – digest complex information, draw conclusions based upon patterns and reasoning, and generate words.
So while legal organizations tread carefully, individual legal professionals are moving ahead—integrating AI tools into their daily lives to gain an edge in efficiency and effectiveness and remove some of the drudgery attendant to the practice.
This is not too surprising – lawyers are people first. And people are using AI. ChatGPT is the most rapidly adopted consumer application in the history of consumer applications. This is creating a pivotal moment for legal organizations, from the ground up.
Despite organizations’ rightful concerns over data security, hallucination, loss of prestige, differentiation, job impacts, etc., consumer-driven movements are hard to stop. The future always arrives.
For these reasons, organizations should endeavor to move at the speed of technology, or at least at the speed of their constituent’s embrace of technology, to ensure that the theory and practice around AI remain in sync.
The Consumerization of AI: A Familiar Pattern
A generation ago, enterprises embraced BlackBerrys. Secure, functional, and controllable, the BlackBerry satisfied IT departments’ need for oversight. But when the iPhone emerged, individual users gravitated toward its superior design, functionality, and user experience. Despite institutional resistance over security and control, users embraced the iPhone because it simply worked better. Enterprises had to adjust or risk losing talent and productivity.
The consumerization of IT was an acknowledgment that, given enough demonstrated utility, users drive policy, not the other way around. Caution didn’t stand a chance.
AI is now following the same path in law. While law firms and legal departments deliberate over AI’s risks—confidentiality, accuracy, and regulatory compliance—legal professionals are already using AI tools to accelerate legal research, streamline contract drafting, and improve client service.
A 2025 survey by Thomson Reuters found that legal professionals are rapidly adopting generative AI tools. Among current users, 72% interact with GenAI at least once a week, and more than 40% use it daily, indicating that AI is becoming deeply embedded in routine legal work. AI’s ability to boost efficiency and deliver better results is too valuable to ignore.
AI’s Reach Is Still Misunderstood
Legal professionals were not slow to recognize that AI would have a prominent place in their lives. However, AI’s exact place is unfolding gradually.
Much of the early conversation around AI centered on “What are the use cases?” Commentators were quick to point out obvious ones – document summarization, document drafting, and chatbots. But this “use case” focus was somewhat reductionist, as the market was just beginning to evolve and gain a more nuanced understanding of AI’s potential. Essentially any activity where facts and information need to be analyzed, patterns recognized, theories and conclusions reached, and words generated, is a pretty good use case for AI.
This concept was challenging initially because it was so novel. Typically, when a technology category is introduced, it is for a narrow and specific slice of legal organizations’ activities. No one struggles to ascertain the use case for a time entry product or a document management tool. With AI, the market was overwhelmed with possibility.
We often ask clients, “what problem would you solve if you had 10 smart assistants at your disposal?” This question reflects the breadth of AI’s reach, while turning the focus on the problem, not the tool.
As the market matures, it’s shifting beyond a narrow focus on “use cases” toward a more sophisticated understanding of AI’s broader potential. This evolution is reinforcing lawyers’ commitment to the technology and increasing the pressure on organizations to adapt.
Utility Over Uncertainty
While legal organizations’ reputations as slow adopters of technology is deserved, the reputation of lawyers as slow adopters of technology isn’t. As individuals, lawyers today tend to be innovative and more open-minded. Demographically, a large segment of the profession are digital natives. Lawyers are among the brightest members of society in a very demanding profession. It would be naïve to think they don’t ‘get it’. The issue in the industry is there are structural impediments to change.
Personal computing, the internet, cloud infrastructure, and smartphones all faced initial skepticism over security, control, and professionalism. Yet necessity and competitive advantage outweighed hesitation and drove adoption.
AI will be no different. Legal professionals are naturally drawn to AI’s capabilities. Better insights, faster research, and more strategic decision-making are tangible benefits. The question is not whether AI will become integral to legal practice—it already is. In the battle between the status quo and the future, the future is undefeated.
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