An international survey conducted by LexisNexis reveals that almost half of legal professionals and consumers see generative AI significantly impacting the practice of law. The study comprised of 7,950 participants including lawyers, law students and consumers from the US, UK, Canada, and France. Their inputs provided a better understanding of their awareness of generative AI and its possible influence on the legal sector.
Contrasting this survey to the generative AI survey carried out by Everlaw in association with the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) and the International Legal Technology Association, this survey manifests different results. Approximately 47% of respondents in the LexisNexis survey believe that generative AI will have a significant or transformative effect on the practice of law, with a further 45% predicting some impact, and roughly 7% foreseeing no impact.
The survey also highlights that corporate counsels expect their law firms to adopt AI technology, with 60% predicting the use of advanced technologies like generative AI tools. Conversely, only around 10% disagree with this view. Among law firms, a similar trend is seen with 52% confident that their clients will anticipate the use of generative AI tools, contra to only 17%.
The anticipation for the adoption of generative AI tools by law firms is most significant in the US, with 67% of corporate counsels foreseeing this change, followed closely by 61% in France, 59% in the UK, and 53% in Canada.
Regarding potential applications, legal professionals foresee the highest potential for generative AI in research (65%), drafting documents (56%), document analysis (44%), and even email writing (35%).
The survey results reveal high awareness of generative AI with 89% of legal professionals having knowledge about these tools. However, in the consumer segment, the awareness is comparatively low (61%).
Lastly, the question of ethics surrounding generative AI is top of the mind for most lawyers. About a third of the lawyers have significant or fundamental concerns about the ethical implications of generative AI.
Notably, consumers mainly use generative AI for researching legal topics (60%), with others considering using AI for tasks like creating a will (40%), setting up a business (37%), or developing a rental agreement (39%).
You can read the full report on the LawNext website.