ABA Tech Survey Finds Growing Adoption of AI in Legal Practice, with Efficiency Gains as Primary Driver

There has been a significant increase in the adoption of artificial intelligence-based tools among law firms, with 30% of respondents now using AI technology compared to just 11% in 2023, according to the just-released 2024 edition of the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Survey Report.

It finds that time savings and increased efficiency remain the dominant perceived benefits of AI implementation in legal practice.

The report, published Wednesday by the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center, is based on a survey that gathered responses from 512 attorneys in private practice across various firm sizes. While the full report covers a range of legal technology topics, I am focusing here on its findings regarding AI. I will look at other topics in future stories.

The survey finds that AI adoption within the legal profession nearly tripled year over year, from 11% in 2023 to 30% in 2024. This growth spans all firm sizes, though larger firms continue to implement AI at a faster pace than their smaller firm counterparts. Among firms with 100 or more attorneys, 46% report currently using AI-based technology tools, up from 16% in 2023 and 23% in 2022.

Mid-sized firms also showed growth, with 30% of firms with 10-49 attorneys now using AI tools, compared to 11% in both 2023 and 2022. Even solo practitioners demonstrated significant adoption increases, with 18% now using AI-based tools, compared to 10% in 2023 and none in 2022.

Beyond current users, an additional 15% of respondents reported “seriously considering” AI tool purchases, suggesting continued growth in adoption is likely in the near term.

By contrast, 22% of respondents said they did not know enough about AI to say whether their firm is using it, and another 18% said they simply do not know.

ChatGPT Leads in Adoption

Somewhat confusingly, the survey report never defines “artificial intelligence” to clarify whether it is referring to the new breed of generative AI or to AI of any kind. It never uses terms such as “generative artificial intelligence” or “large language models.”

It seems, however, to be focused on gen AI, particularly when it reports that, among firms currently using or considering AI tools, ChatGPT is the most popular solution, with 52% of respondents indicating they use or are considering OpenAI’s general-purpose chatbot.

However, the report says, adoption patterns varied significantly by firm size. Smaller firms showed stronger preference for ChatGPT, with 64% of firms with 2-9 attorneys and 62% of solo practitioners using or considering it, compared to just 36% of firms with 100 or more attorneys.

Legal-specific AI tools showed substantial adoption, particularly in larger firms. Thomson Reuters CoCounsel was used or under consideration by 26% of respondents overall, with higher rates among firms with 10-49 attorneys (34%) and firms with 50-99 attorneys (33%). Similarly, Lexis+ AI showed consistent adoption across all firm sizes, with 24% of total respondents using or considering the platform.

Specialized legal AI tools such as Harvey AI (5.9%), Anthropic (5.3%), and Spellbook (3.0%) showed smaller but measurable adoption, primarily concentrated in larger firms.

It appears from the report that the survey provided names of products for respondents to choose from, but that users were also able to write in names of products or select “other.”

Efficiency Remains Primary Benefit

When asked about the most important benefits AI could provide, 54% of respondents identified “saving time/increasing efficiency” as the primary advantage, up from 44% in 2023. Document management and document review capabilities ranked second at 9%, while cost reduction was cited by just 4.5% of respondents.

However, concerns about the technology remain substantial. Accuracy of AI technology was identified as the top concern by 75% of respondents, up significantly from 58% in 2023. Reliability of technology (56%, up from 48%) and data privacy and security concerns (47%, up from 45%) rounded out the top three concerns.

The pattern of concerns showed consistency across firm sizes, though solo practitioners expressed notably lower concern about data privacy and security (24%) compared to firms with 10-49 attorneys (56%) and firms with 100 or more attorneys (54%).

Mainstream Within Three Years

The legal profession appears increasingly convinced of AI’s imminence, with 13% of respondents stating AI is “already mainstream” in legal practice, up from just 4% in 2023. A substantial 45% believe AI will become mainstream within the next three years, compared to 39% in 2023 and only 20% in 2022.

Solo practitioners showed the highest confidence in AI’s rapid integration, with 53% expecting mainstream adoption within three years, while larger firms were somewhat more conservative in their projections, with 40% of firms with 100 or more attorneys sharing this timeline expectation.

Only 9% of respondents expect AI adoption to take more than five years, and the percentage of respondents who indicated they “don’t know enough about AI to answer” dropped to 9% from 18% in 2023, suggesting growing familiarity with the technology across the profession.

AI Learning Methods

As attorneys seek to understand and adapt to AI technologies, traditional educational methods remain prominent. CLE seminars or webinars were the most common resource for learning about new technologies like AI, cited by 61% of respondents. Publications (37%), legal news (34%), and other law firms (32%) were also significant sources of information.

Smaller firms showed higher reliance on CLE programming, with 66% of solo practitioners and 68% of firms with 2-9 attorneys consulting these resources, compared to 49% of firms with 100+ attorneys. Conversely, larger firms showed greater tendency to consult publications (56% of firms with 100-499 attorneys) and legal news sources (40% of firms with 500+ attorneys).

Legal Research Is Primary Use Case

Within the broader context of legal technology use, the survey indicated that legal research remains the dominant application for AI tools, with 35% of respondents reporting using legal analytics for conducting legal research in the past year. Case or matter strategy development (23%), understanding judges (17%), and predicting outcomes (13%) were the next most common applications.

Larger firms reported more diverse AI applications, with firms of 100+ attorneys showing higher rates of usage for business development (23-30% compared to 6.5% of solo practitioners) and understanding opposing counsel (21-27% compared to 4.8% of solo practitioners).

The full Legal Technology Survey Report is published in five volumes that cover Online Research, Technology Basics & Security, Law Office Technology, Marketing & Communication Technology, and Life & Practice.

The combined report containing all five volumes is available for purchase for $1,600 or, for ABA members, $1,400.