AI is the future of law, but most legal pros aren’t trained for it, new report says
According to a new Thomson Reuters report, almost everyone thinks that artificial intelligence will be an important part of their jobs within the near future—that is, if they can learn how to use it properly.
On Tuesday, Thomson Reuters released a survey finding that a whopping 95% of respondents expect AI to be central to their workflow in the next five years—but nearly 64% of respondents say they still haven’t received training on the technology.
“It is incredible how quickly legal professionals have moved from skepticism to strategic adoption of GenAI,” Raghu Ramanathan, president of legal professionals at Thomson Reuters, said in a press release. “The challenge isn’t technological but organizational—how to integrate these powerful tools while addressing legitimate ethical concerns unique to legal practice. Firms that strike this balance will define the next era of legal service delivery.”
The report, which surveyed about 1,700 global professionals in the legal, corporate, government, accounting and tax sectors, finds that law firm usage of generative AI has nearly doubled year-over-year, from 14% in 2024 to 26% in 2025. Meanwhile, 74% of law firm professionals believe AI will help the legal industry, according to another 2025 Reuters report, and 69% say they use generative AI tools at least weekly.
But 52% of respondents believed that their firms did not have formal generative AI policies, the report says.
Law firms see AI as a tool to help with saving time and money, though they also believe the firms need to set responsible usage policies to ensure regulatory compliance.
“There are so many opportunities and new innovations that come with generative AI,” a government senior policy analyst said in the Reuters report. “Existing workforces need to be retrained about how to use, how to challenge, and how to recognize the use of AI, and there are serious ethical and privacy concerns, particularly when working in the legal field.”
The result would be predictable pricing, which would support transparent costs and competitive rates. That’s why 57% of clients report desire for the firms to use artificial intelligence, though few have included provisions or other AI guidelines, the report says.
This leads some to question whether AI will take over the work of many in the legal profession. According to the Reuters report only 10% of respondents believe generative AI is no threat to lawyers’ jobs, while an additional 10% believe it is a major threat. The rest of the field falls somewhere in the middle.
The report outlines steps law firm leaders should consider taking now, which include funding multiyear investments in new technology, encouraging adoption of the new technology (there’s already an 11% point drop in the share of respondents hesitant about AI), and helping clients understand the value of AI.
Most importantly, the firms need to set AI policies. Currently, just 23% of responding entities have policies specifically guiding the use of generative AI, and 13% have it covered under their technology policies. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, 64% have no generative AI training available, but that is an increase over 2024, when 76% didn’t have training.
“For leaders, providing ongoing training to their professionals is absolutely a must,” the report said. “It’s clear that some ongoing source of education will be necessary for organizations to safely and ethically navigate the GenAI-enabled world ahead.”
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