New lawyers don’t need to be AI-savvy just yet, survey finds

Only 2% of law firms require incoming associates to have AI skills

Very few law firms and in-house legal teams believe their new lawyers will need generative AI skills, new research has found.

The Thomson Reuters survey looked at the changing attitudes toward AI among lawyers, with a whopping 85% believing the technology can be applied to their work.

Twelve percent of law firms and corporate legal teams reported already using legal-specific AI, while an additional 43% indicated plans to adopt it within the next three years. Over a quarter (27%) said they are already using public AI tools like ChatGPT.

The survey also revealed that only 2% of law firms and in-house teams require AI skills from their new lawyers, while 17% consider them a “nice to have” but not essential.

More than a third of law firms (34%) believe the growing use of AI will lead to the creation of new non-lawyer roles in the coming years, such as “AI Specialist”, “AI Implementation Coordinator”, and “Director of AI”.

Respondents highlighted several reasons for their excitement about AI, including increased efficiency and productivity (41%), new opportunities (27%), and its transformative potential for the industry (19%). However, they also expressed concerns about ethical issues (23%), accuracy (23%), and over-reliance on the technology (19%).

John Shatwell, head of legal professionals Europe at Thomson Reuters, commented:

“Legal professionals are increasingly recognising the difference in value between AI tools and their industry-specific use cases and are increasingly excited to advance alongside the technology.”

He continued: “As the technology continues to gain prominence across industries, legal professionals are grappling with a unique concern: the unauthorised practice of law. AI is gaining increasing capabilities to undertake legal tasks. In tandem with these developments, the profession must continue its efforts to rapidly put in place the internal processes and guardrails to ensure the safe and controlled use of AI in the field.”