The International Legal Technology Association released its 2025 Legal Technology Survey results and report on Monday. Representatives from nearly 600 global law firms, including over half of ILTA members, participated in the survey. In addition to covering all tech trends in law firms, the survey featured a section on emerging technologies such as generative AI.
Eighty percent of respondents said their firms are using or exploring generative AI in 2025. That includes all firms with 700 or more attorneys and 63% of firms with 50 or fewer attorneys.
The most used generative AI tool in law firms today is Microsoft 365 Copilot, with 68% of respondents saying their firms use it. Thirty-six percent of firms use CoCounsel "Core" by Thomson Reuters, 34% use Westlaw AI-Assisted Research, 33% use the regular Microsoft Copilot, 33% use Harvey, 29% use CoCounsel "Drafting" by Thomson Reuters, 26% use Microsoft Copilot for Windows and 25% use Lexis+ AI.
About one in five firms is using the public version of ChatGPT, but that number jumps to 33% in firms with 50 or fewer attorneys. Microsoft 365 Copilot is the most prominent tool in BigLaw, with 84% of firms with 700 or more attorneys using it.
Two-thirds of firms with CoPilot have it issued on a request basis, with only 8% of firms having the tool deployed for all employees.
Lourdes M. Fuentes, founder of the law firm management consulting firm Karta Legal, told Law360 Pulse on Monday that many lawyers are unfamiliar with CoPilot.
"Those who do have access to it often abandon it after encountering a mistake or disliking how it rewrites or summarizes content," Fuentes said. "The crucial point they miss is that mastering the tool can lead to significant productivity gains."
While adoption of AI tools is widespread, the survey found that more usage is still in a piloting phase instead of full deployment.
Nearly 60% of law firms using Microsoft 365 Copilot right now are still in the testing and piloting phase. This is the same phase that over half of law firms using Lexis+ AI are in, as well as 60% of law firms using CoCounsel "Core" and 71% of firms using Harvey. Over 90% of firms using iManage AI are still just piloting and testing.
Pratik Patel, vice president of innovation at the alternative legal services provider Elevate, told Law360 Pulse on Monday that full adoption of AI tools in law firms remains light because of the nature of out-of-the-box generative AI tools.
"It will do a great job of performing general tasks that would otherwise have taken more time, but adding precision and accuracy to those generative AI activities requires the lawyers and their teams to do a few more things, including supplying the engine with precedent work product or sources of information that the out-of-the-box generative AI should leverage when drafting responses," Patel said.
One model for AI adoption success in law firms is to have targeted use cases in a practice area. Patel said firms should adequately invest in AI support to help those use cases.
"But for now, and until that actually happens, it could be a case where that approach is being used more for window dressing and marketing to keep the firm relevant in the law firm AI race," Patel said.
A few AI tools are seeing full deployment. Forty percent of firms using Westlaw AI-Assisted Research have fully deployed the tool to lawyers. Thirty-six percent of firms using the time platform Laurel.AI have it fully deployed to lawyers as well.
Fuentes said part of the slow AI adoption problem is that many lawyers are cautious.
"Combined with analysis paralysis and concerns about integrating AI into practice in their current set up with billable hours, the challenge of change management surpasses that of the technology itself," Fuentes said.
The number of firms offering training on a specific AI tool has more than doubled from last year, from 17% to 36%.
Respondents to the survey were also more optimistic about future uses of generative AI. Eighty-four percent of respondents expect AI to summarize complex documents in the next 12 months, up from 70% last year. Eight of ten respondents also expect generative AI to be used for research in the next 12 months.
On the administrative side, 64% said their firms plan to use generative AI in the information technology department. Over half expect to use it for research, marketing/business development and litigation support.
However, law firm tech leaders still have some worries about generative AI. Over 80% of respondents listed risks around confidentiality or misuse and accuracy as their biggest concerns about generative AI in the legal field.
Despite these concerns, just 48% have an official firm policy on generative AI tools, where they only permit the use of vetted and sanctioned applications.
Finally, the survey also touched on agentic AI, a form of AI that involved autonomous agents completing tasks with little human oversight. Thirty-nine percent of firms said they are only at the point of following agentic AI in the press and 36% said agentic AI does not apply to their firms at this time. Just 27% are talking to vendors about agentic AI and 11% are piloting agentic AI tools.
--Editing by Drashti Mehta.
Update: This story has been updated to include additional comment.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
