Thomson Reuters in the present day launched its 2025 Generative AI in Skilled Providers Report, and it reveals that authorized professionals have turn into more and more optimistic about generative AI, with adoption charges practically doubling over the previous yr and a rising perception that the expertise needs to be included into authorized work.
In response to the report, 26% of authorized organizations are actually actively utilizing gen AI, up from 14% in 2024. Whereas solely 15% of regulation agency respondents say gen AI is at present central to their workflow, a placing 78% consider it’s going to turn into central inside the subsequent 5 years.
Examine these numbers to different surveys I just lately reported on right here:
The American Bar Affiliation’s Authorized Know-how Survey Report, which discovered that about 21% of regulation corporations had been utilizing legal-specific gen AI instruments.
The 2025 Authorized Business Report printed by AffiniPay, which discovered that particular person use of gen AI at regulation corporations was at 31%, although organizational adoption was decrease at 21%.
The 2025 State of Regulation Report from regulation follow administration firm Smokeball, which discovered that AI adoption amongst small and solo corporations had risen from 27% in 2023 to 53% in 2024.
“The GenAI revolution was by no means actually a revolution,” this new Thomson Reuters report states. “GenAI has not damaged the methods professionals work or considerably disrupted the interactions between corporations and their purchasers. As an alternative, for skilled companies, it has been extra of an evolution.”
The survey discovered that regulation agency sentiment towards gen AI has shifted markedly over the previous yr. In 2024, hesitancy was the predominant response (35%), however in 2025, pleasure (27%) and hopefulness (28%) have taken the lead, whereas hesitancy has dropped to 24%.
Doc assessment (77%), authorized analysis (74%), and doc summarization (74%) stay the highest use instances for authorized professionals. Practically 70% of regulation agency respondents who use gen AI report doing so no less than weekly.
“It’s unbelievable how rapidly authorized professionals have moved from skepticism to strategic adoption of gen AI, and we’re seeing it firsthand by way of use of our AI options,” Raghu Ramanathan, president of authorized professionals at Thomson Reuters, mentioned in a press release commenting on the report. “The authorized sector is embracing gen AI not as a menace however as an ally, and this isn’t about changing authorized experience—it’s about enhancing it.”
Regardless of this rising adoption, the report recognized a number of gaps in implementation methods:
Solely 41% of regulation corporations have established insurance policies governing gen AI use (both particularly or subsumed inside a broader tech coverage).
Simply 40% present any type of gen AI coaching to employees.
Merely 20% of organizations are measuring return on funding for gen AI instruments.
71% of company authorized purchasers don’t know whether or not their exterior regulation corporations are utilizing gen AI.
“If 95% of pros consider GenAI can be central to their organizations’ workflow inside the subsequent 5 years, presumably, new hires in the present day needs to be current and engaged when GenAI involves the fore,” the report notes. “Nevertheless, even setting apart respondents who don’t know their group’s hiring plans, a big proportion say their organizations are usually not focusing on candidates with these expertise.”
The report concludes that for authorized organizations to totally capitalize on gen AI’s potential, they need to transfer past preliminary adoption to strategic implementation, together with measuring outcomes, establishing governance frameworks, and having express conversations with purchasers about how and when gen AI is getting used.
The Thomson Reuters Institute survey included 1,702 respondents throughout authorized, tax, accounting, audit, company danger, fraud, and authorities sectors. The information was collected in January and February 2025, with authorized professionals making up 41% of respondents.
