State of AI in Legal 2026

Legal generative AI adoption nearly doubled in a single year: Thomson Reuters found 26% of legal organizations were already using genAI in 2025, up from 14% in 2024. The work it now touches is concentrated in document review, research, and drafting, yet only one in five firms actually measures the return, leaving a maturing technology with an unproven business case.

Adoption jumped sharply, led by law firms over corporate teams

The pace of change in 2025 was steep. The share of legal organizations actively using generative AI rose from 14% in 2024 to 26% in 2025, a 12 percentage point gain in twelve months. Law firms led at 28% adoption, ahead of corporate legal departments at 23%. The widening lead for firms reflects competitive pressure on billable efficiency and client expectations, while in-house teams move more cautiously given direct exposure to enterprise data-governance rules. Sentiment also shifted, with hopeful or excited professionals rising from 44% to 55%.

Usage concentrates in reading and drafting, not strategy

Generative AI in legal practice is overwhelmingly a document tool. The top use cases by share of users are document review at 74%, legal research at 73%, and document summarization at 72%, followed by brief or memo drafting at 59% and contract drafting at 51%. These tasks share a common profile: high volume, language-heavy, and well-suited to retrieval and summarization. The pattern shows that firms are automating the time-intensive reading layer of legal work first, where errors are easier to catch, before trusting AI with higher-stakes judgment or advocacy.

Engagement is intense among the adopters who stay

Among professionals who have adopted generative AI, usage is sticky rather than occasional. Thomson Reuters reports that 72% of genAI users engage with the technology at least weekly, and more than 40% use it daily or multiple times a day. This frequency suggests the tools have crossed the threshold from novelty to habitual workflow for those who integrate them. The implication for legal-tech vendors is that retention hinges on embedding into daily research and drafting routines, not on one-off pilots that fade after initial curiosity.

The ROI and training gaps are the real bottleneck

Despite rapid uptake, the business case remains thin. Only 20% of legal professionals measure generative AI's return on investment, meaning most adoption is proceeding on faith rather than documented value. Training availability has improved but is still limited, rising from 19% in 2024 to 31% in 2025. The combination of high engagement, narrow measurement, and modest training points to a 2026 in which firms shift focus from access to accountability, building the metrics and skills needed to justify continued spend.

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Compiled by ToolGlance from publicly reported data; figures link to their sources. Updated 2026-05-30.