A new survey by Intapp of 800 fee earners across a mix of professional service segments found that 72% now use AI tools – up from 48% last year. Great. But…also that ‘50% have used AI tools for work that were not authorised. [And] another 23% say they would’. Yikes…!
So, it’s a survey of two halves – one very nice, with growing expansion of genAI use with those at law firms, finance firms and elsewhere, saying they increasingly tap the tech for a range of things, including…..spending more time on billable work.
See here:
42% have reallocated time saved to focus on higher-level client work.
23% have reallocated time to pursue new business opportunities.
24% have reallocated time saved to increase billable hours.
So, that’s really good to see and great that people are finding that using AI absorbs low value tasks, which allows them to then focus on billable work – or work that has more value.
But….as noted, there is a real minefield there as well, with around three quarters of those sampled saying they either have used non-authorised tools, or would.
That is bonkers.
Aside from all the data issues, as the legal sector keeps finding….(doh…!) if you ask a ‘raw’ LLM for precise info it may well make it up. If you use a proper legal tech tool that has great RAG capabilities and is really connected to the source material and is designed as best as possible to not hallucinate….then you are on much safer ground.
What does this tell us?
People like using AI. Why? Because they save time and can do more fun and profitable things.
People are still reckless with AI and don’t really understand that ChatGPT on its own is not the same as using Westlaw.
And, thus, this means we need way more education on what genAI does and how to use it safely.
No doubt this will take some time….
Last word goes to Robin Tech, Vice President of AI and Data at Intapp, who said: ‘AI is becoming an essential part of the workflow for professionals, who are driving top-line and bottom-line growth within their firms as a result. Widespread AI adoption is here to stay and firms that are not ready are falling behind.’
You can find more about Intapp here and find the report here.
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[ Image: a lawyer taking a big risk and doing case law research on ChatGPT – which is also not allowed at their firm. ]
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