95% of UK legal professionals believe generative AI tools will have a
noticeable impact on the practice of law. 70% of in-house counsel will
expect their firms to use AI, whilst only 55% of firms think their
clients will expect it.
LONDON, 13 July 2023 – Today, LexisNexis Legal & Professional [1], a
leading global provider of legal information and analytics, has released
a new report entitled “_Generative AI and the future of the legal
profession_”, which highlights a disconnect between in-house
counsels’ and law firms’ expectation of generative AI adoption. 49%
of in-house counsel expect their law firms to be using generative AI in
the next 12 months, and of that percentage 11% expect firms to be
already using the technology. Only 8% didn’t want AI used on their
work. In contrast, 24% of firms believe their clients would not want
them to use AI.
The survey of 1,175 UK legal professionals, conducted in May to June
2023, finds 87% are aware of generative AI tools – and of that group,
95% agree these tools will have an impact on the practice of law (38%
said it will have a significant impact,11% said it will be
transformative and 46% thought it would have “some impact”). Nearly
three-quarters (70%) of in-house counsel agree or strongly agree that
law firms should be using cutting-edge technology, including generative
AI tools.
While only 36% of respondents have ever used generative AI in a personal
or professional capacity, adoption rates are likely to accelerate in the
coming months, with 39% saying they are currently exploring
opportunities. This rose to 64% when analysing responses from large law
firms alone, and to 47% when looking at responses from in-house lawyers.
Almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) agree that generative AI
technology will increase their efficiency. When asked how they would
like to use generative AI specifically in their work, respondents said
researching matters (66%), briefing documents (59%) and document
analysis (47%) had the most potential.
However, many in the profession are understandably concerned about the
risks that come from the use of AI technology. Two thirds (67%) of
survey participants feel mixed about the impact of generative AI on the
practice of law, admitting that they can see both the positives and the
drawbacks.
“When freely available AI tools don’t have access to the relevant
data, they have a tendency to make up the answers, or hallucinate,”
says Alison Rees-Blanchard,” head of TMT legal guidance at LexisNexis.
“This means any generated output must be checked thoroughly. However,
a closed data source means that hallucinations will be easier to
identify, as verification of the output is made easier.”
LexisNexis recently announced the commercial preview of Lexis+AI. Built
and trained on LexisNexis’ enormous repository of accurate and
exclusive content, this generative AI platform will transform the future
of legal work. It brings powerful conversational search to complex legal
research, enhanced summarisation to speed up insight creation and, with
generative document drafting, it will guide users through the legal
drafting process with citations that link directly to LexisNexis
About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional provides legal, regulatory, and
business information and analytics that help customers increase their
productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and
advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the
company was the first to bring legal and business information online
with its Lexis and Nexis services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional,
which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,300 employees
worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based
analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.
