LexisNexis Legal & Regulatory has released the results of its International Legal Generative AI Survey. The survey asked 7,950 lawyers, law students, and consumers across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and France about their overall awareness, its anticipated impact on the practice of law, use of generative AI, and expectations of adoption.
“Our survey confirms what we hear from customers all over the world every day, that they are excited about the potential of generative AI to help improve their productivity, efficiency, and overall business and practice of law,” said Mike Walsh, CEO of LexisNexis Legal & Professional. “Customer-driven innovation is core to the approach we take with product development, and LexisNexis is excited that our Lexis+ AI platform safely and securely provides critical generative AI tools to help legal professionals excel in their jobs.”
It is clear from the survey that relatively few lawyers have used Generative AI and I have to assume that even fewer have used it for their actual legal work. The market has become painfully aware of the “hallucinated cases” that can be generated using open source GPT Chat for legal research. Lexis Nexis will soon launch Lexis+ AI. All of its competitors (Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg Law, Wolters Kluwer, vLex) are laser focused on developing or launching Generative AI products that can not only drive efficiency but also address lawyers legitimate concerns regarding the ethics and security of these products.
Key Findings:
Awareness of Generative AI 89% of legal professionals have heard of generative AI tools. And only 61% of consumers have heard of it.
Ethics Regarding Generative AI
The vast majority (89%) of lawyers are concerned with ethical implications of generative AI
Consumer Use of Generative AI for Legal Work
Consumers largely use generative AI for researching legal topics (60%). Many would consider using AI for legal assistance to create a will (40%), set up a business (37%), and develop a rental agreement (39%).
Impact on Legal Education
A substantial majority of lawyers across the US, UK, France and Canada believe that Generative AI will have a substantial impact.
Potential Use of Generative AI
Lawyers see the highest potential for generative AI tools to assist them in researching matters (65%). Drafting documents (56%), document analysis (44%), and email writing (35%) are also important potential use cases.
Impact of Generative AI
47% of respondents believe generative AI will have a significant or transformative impact on the practice of law. 45% of respondents believe generative AI will have some impact, Only about 7% believe generative AI will have no impact.
Corporate Counsel Expectations – Differences across countries
67% of U.S. corporate counsel, 61% of French counsel, 59% of U.K. counsel, and 53% of Canadian counsel, expect their law firms to adopt generative AI tools.
Methodology
The survey was conducted across 7,950 people, including 3,752 lawyers, 1,239 law students, and 2,959 consumers in the US, UK, France, and Canada between March and July 2023. Surveys were conducted in English and French, and respondents were prompted for feedback via Pollfish/Forsta.
For more information on Lexis+ AI, visit www.lexisnexis.com/ai.
To download a copy of the LexisNexis International Legal Generative AI Survey report, visit www.lexisnexis.com/international-gai-survey.
