Highlights
48% of legal professionals are concerned about AI’s impact on independent judgment development.
80% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years. That’s an increase of 3 percentage points from 2024 to 2025.
53% of respondents said their organizations are already seeing a return on investment (ROI) from investing in AI.
Over the past few years, legal professionals have become less wary of AI. Indeed, they are increasingly embracing AI as a transformative force, becoming more and more optimistic about the positive impact it can have on their practices.
What is the impact on future roles?
Speaking of concerns: Professionals of all kinds have worried that this technology would eliminate thousands, even millions, of positions. But in many skilled professions including the legal field, it now appears more that AI is reshaping rather than eliminating jobs.
This was certainly the perception of the majority of those surveyed in the 2024 Future of Professionals Report. All told, 85% of respondents believed that the incorporation of AI into their practices will require taking on new roles and learning new skills.
Respondents foresee increasing demand for the following capabilities:
Ability to adapt to change – 71% increase
Problem-solving — 56% increase
Creativity – 53% increase
Communication skills — 52% increase
Lawyers need to think about enhancing these capabilities for themselves and their team members. They also need to look beyond the direct impact of AI on the tools they use and consider the bigger picture of how their roles may be changing.
What new value can they bring to their clients? How will they use the time that they save? Will they need to meet new expectations about productivity? Will legal education be different? Will AI skills affect hiring? Will the structure of law firms and organizations change? What new roles may become available?
Here are the top emerging roles that respondents identified:
AI-specialist professionals — 39%
IT and cybersecurity specialists — 37% and 35%
AI implementation managers — 33%
AI-specialist trainers — 32%
AI will create new challenges for the legal profession, but also professionally satisfying opportunities.