How Has AI Changed Legal Services Since 2023? Adoption Data from the US, UK, Canada and Australia
AI went from experiment to everyday tool in three years, but few firms can show the return. The adoption numbers by country, what changed and what comes next.
In brief
- 79% of legal professionals now use AI in some form (Clio, 2025), but only 26% of legal organizations actively use generative AI as a business tool (Thomson Reuters, 2025).
- UK and Ireland: 41% of legal professionals used generative AI in September 2024, up from 11% in July 2023 (LexisNexis).
- Australia: 69% of practitioners use or plan to use generative AI (LexisNexis, 2026).
- Only 20% of legal professionals say their organization measures the return on generative AI (Thomson Reuters, 2025).
How widely do lawyers use AI now?
Widely, but unevenly. Clio’s 2025 Legal Trends Report found 79% of legal professionals use AI in some form, from 71% of solo practitioners to 87% in large firms. Formal, organization-wide adoption is much lower: Thomson Reuters found 26% of legal organizations actively used generative AI in 2025, up from 14% a year earlier.
The difference matters. Individual lawyers trying a chat assistant is not the same as a firm running a reviewed, measured workflow.
How does adoption compare across countries?
- United States: the ABA’s 2024 Legal Technology Survey found 30.2% of law offices used AI-based tools, ranging from 17.7% of solo practitioners to 47.8% of firms with 500 or more lawyers.
- UK and Ireland: LexisNexis found 41% of legal professionals were using generative AI in September 2024, up from 11% in July 2023, and another 41% planned to.
- Australia: LexisNexis’s 2026 survey of 1,037 practitioners found 69% using or planning to use generative AI, with small firms the most likely to have started. In Western Australia, the Law Society’s 2025 survey found 54% already used AI platforms.
- Canada: in LexisNexis’s 2023 international survey, 53% of Canadian corporate counsel expected the law firms they use to adopt generative AI tools.
What changed between 2023 and 2026?
2023 was the year of individual experiments. Lawyers tested public chat tools on their own, mostly outside any approved workflow, and the main questions were about accuracy and invented citations.
2024 and 2025 brought rules and products. The ABA issued Formal Opinion 512 in July 2024, the Law Society of Ontario published its guidance in April 2024, and the NSW Supreme Court’s practice note on generative AI took effect in February 2025. Legal-specific products multiplied, although Clio found use of legal-specific AI tools fell to 40% from 58% as many lawyers turned to general-purpose assistants.
2026 is about proof. Thomson Reuters found only 20% of legal professionals say their organization measures the return on generative AI, and only 22% of organizations have a visible AI strategy. Yet firms with a strategy were twice as likely to report AI-driven revenue growth.
Why do so few firms see measurable results?
Because most adoption is informal. Clio found 53% of legal professionals have no AI policy or do not know of one, and Thomson Reuters found 40% of organizations are adopting AI without a strategy. Tools used without a baseline, an owner or a review process cannot show what they saved.
What comes next for AI in legal services?
- Narrow workflows win. Medical summaries, demand drafts, intake triage and document review show value fastest because the before-and-after can be measured.
- Traceability becomes the buying test. Tools that link every statement to its source will beat tools that only write fluently.
- Pricing comes under pressure. 67.6% of Australian practitioners expect AI to disrupt the billable hour (LexisNexis, 2026), and Clio found 45% of wide AI adopters have already adjusted pricing.
- AI changes how clients find firms. As clients ask AI assistants for recommendations, directory profiles, reviews and clear service pages become part of competitive strategy.
What should a firm do next?
Choose one workflow, record how long it takes and how often it needs rework today, run it with an AI tool for 60 days and measure again. That single comparison will tell you more than any vendor demonstration.
Sources
- Clio 2025 Legal Trends Report summary
- Thomson Reuters 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services, reported by LawSites
- Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals 2025
- ABA 2024 Artificial Intelligence TechReport
- LexisNexis UK and Ireland generative AI survey, reported by Local Government Lawyer
- LexisNexis 2026 Australian AI Sentiment Survey
- Law Society of Western Australia 2025 Generative AI Survey
- LexisNexis International Legal Generative AI Survey (Canada)
- ABA Formal Opinion 512
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