Worries about impact of AI switch from fear of job losses to concerns about professional development, report says
Twenty-four percent of legal and other professionals surveyed by Thomson Reuters are worried that overreliance on artificial intelligence will have a negative effect on professional development. (Image from Shutterstock)
Twenty-four percent of legal and other professionals surveyed by Thomson Reuters are worried that overreliance on artificial intelligence will have a negative effect on professional development.
The 2025 Future of Professionals report by Thomson Reuters, available here, said the concerns have changed from the early days of AI, when the worries were about widespread job losses and malicious use of AI.
Malicious use remains a concern, expressed by 14% of survey respondents. Fifteen percent were concerned about privacy, confidentiality and transparency, while 13% were concerned about data security implications.
The report is based on a survey of 2,275 professionals across legal, risk, compliance, tax, accounting, audit and trade professions from more than 50 countries, according to a June 26 press release. The professionals include 1,363 legal professionals in law firms, in-house roles and government positions, Law.com reports.
Steven Assie, the general manager of global and large firms at Thomson Reuters, told Law.com that the concerns vary by generation. Thirty-seven percent of baby boomer lawyers cited loss of professional skill development as their No. 1 concern, compared to just 14% of Generation Z lawyers, Assie said.
AI can now create a first draft of a document that would have fallen to a junior firm associate in the past, Assie told Law.com.
“Some firms are changing their training process,” he said. “They also recognize that the skills required by the modern lawyer may be different. Lawyers will still need to apply technical judgment but will be applying this to reviewing AI outputs, rather than creating the first draft from scratch.”
Eighty percent of the survey respondents think that AI will have a high or even transformational impact their profession within five years—but 30% say their organizations are moving too slowly to adopt AI, according to the press release and the report.
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