Everlaw Survey Reveals a Strong Willingness for Legal Teams to Embrace Generative AI

Global News

21
Aug
2023

Editor

Everlaw, the cloud-native investigation and litigation platform, published today “2023 Ediscovery Innovation Report.” It reveals the legal industry’s fast growing demand for generative AI: 40% of legal professionals surveyed say they are already using gen AI tools or planning to do so in the future. Yet, 72% voiced concerns that the legal industry is not ready for the impacts.

In partnership with the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) and  International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), Everlaw surveyed 245 legal professionals in the U.S. across law firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies, and legal service providers to surface key trends in technology use for litigation and investigation work for ediscovery. The 2023 report builds on Everlaw’s 2021 and 2022 research.

Key findings include: 

Legal professionals show optimism, adoption of gen AI but warn industry is not ready 

• Generative AI is on an accelerated path to adoption with 40% of legal professionals surveyed indicating they are already using gen AI tools (12%) or planning to do so in the future (28%) – a significant proportion given the newness of the technology. 
• Over half of respondents (51%) either agreed or strongly agreed that generative AI’s impacts on the profession would be positive, helping legal professionals to deliver greater client value (51%), and allowing them to prioritize higher-value work (65%). Only 29% of respondents said that generative AI risked diminishing the value of legal work in the long term.
• Despite the optimism, 72% of legal professionals surveyed said the industry is not ready for the impacts of gen AI. An additional 22% remain undecided.
• Concerns for generative AI abound but “excessive or prohibitive cost” was not one of them; only 1% of respondents cited cost as a challenge in using gen AI for legal matters. The top three issues cited were: inaccuracy 44%, inability to explain or justify how AI works 17% and security concerns 14%. 
• A majority of respondents reported being comfortable using generative AI on discrete ediscovery tasks, including identifying patterns in datasets and summarizing documents.

“Legal professionals are moving quickly to adopt gen AI tools for some tasks, making sure  guardrails are in place,” said Chuck Kellner, strategic discovery advisor, Everlaw. “The key is working with trusted partners who are addressing the challenges proactively and responsibly.”

A cloud divide reflects a larger technological gap, from ediscovery to generative AI

• The survey showed that legal teams who are ahead in adopting cloud computing – compared to those peers using on-prem or hybrid approaches – were also more likely to be at the forefront of AI adoption as well as other tech advances such as cloud-to-cloud uploads, advanced analytics, and end-to-end trial preparation tools. For example, cloud adopters have the highest rate (56%) of utilizing advanced technology, where the majority of on-premises users reported that they had not used such tools in the last 12 months.
• The users of cloud-based ediscovery software managed in-house were the most positive about the impact of generative AI on client value, with over half (53%) agreeing that it will help them deliver more to their clients.
• On the other hand, respondents who use on-premises software managed in-house had the highest level of strong disagreement (15%) with the notion that AI will increase client value. 

“A gap between have and havenots in legal tech is becoming more pronounced,” Kellner said. “Those legal teams tied to legacy solutions may increasingly fall behind as AI emerges.”

The legal profession's move to cloud-based technology is firmly established

• Legal professionals are nearly unanimous (95%) in viewing cloud-based ediscovery as soon becoming the standard for the industry.
• 56% of respondents said cloud-based ediscovery is currently the standard approach, growing 17% year over year and nearly doubling over the past two years. 
• An additional 39% said that cloud-based discovery software will become the norm within the next year (12%) or two years (27%). 

“If the move to the cloud took over a decade for ediscovery, the willingness to experiment with generative AI tools seems far faster – and especially so for other forms of AI adoption,” said Kellner. “Generative AI is on an accelerated path to the same destination.”

"ACEDS is proud to collaborate with ILTA and Everlaw to focus on the future of artificial intelligence in the legal sector," said Mike Quartararo, president of ACEDS. "Generative AI is evolving, and our ongoing relationship aims to build educational content that serves the legal community as we tackle its important and growing role in e-discovery and legal technology,” he added. “Together, we're working to develop AI responsibly, ensuring that it aligns not only with the ethical needs and the demands of the industry but that there are processes and training to help lawyers and legal professionals understand how to use it."

“When ILTA, ACEDS, and Everlaw come together to produce something as high-quality and useful as this all-new Innovation Report, there’s no one in the industry who shouldn’t read it,” said Beth Anne Stuebe, director of publications and press. “Our legal tech space is moving so rapidly and the growing role of generative AI is something we must all pay attention to. Our duty, as industry-leaders, is to help educate and train, ethically, the legal professionals practicing now and those who will come next.”

Methodology: Everlaw conducted this study with ACEDS and ILTA to learn more about key trends in ediscovery innovation. We emailed legal professionals in June and July of 2023 and received 245 completed responses to our survey.