AI Adoption Has Surged to 78 Percent in This 1 Industry—but There’s a Catch

A new report sheds light on how AI adoption has grown massively in one industry, even if it doesn’t seem to be dramatically changing its economics.

BY KOLAWOLE ADEBAYO, COLUMNIST

Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images

One industry has gone from barely touching AI to mass adoption in just two years. AI adoption in the legal field jumped from 23 percent to 78 percent, which is faster than in finance and healthcare.

Litify’s third annual State of AI in Legal Report, which surveyed hundreds of legal professionals across law firms, corporate legal departments, and plaintiff practices, found that legal professionals are now among the fastest AI adopters anywhere.

But there’s a problem hiding inside that adoption number. Only 14 percent say AI is helping them reduce costs. Just 7 percent report billing more time. Legal firms rushed to buy the sports car, then kept driving it in first gear. The gap between “we use AI” and “this changed our economics” is enormous, and it’s widening even further.

“At Litify, we view this as an ‘AI maturity gap,’” notes Curtis Brewer, CEO of Litify, the legal operations platform used by 55,000+ legal professionals. “A firm that relies solely on a general-purpose tool like ChatGPT is only at the first step of its maturity journey.”

How Canva Became the Power Player in the AI Design Wars

The Litify data reveals exactly where firms are stuck. ChatGPT dominates usage at 66 percent, followed by Microsoft Copilot (42 percent) and Google Gemini (24 percent). These are general-purpose tools—not legal-specific platforms. And while 66 percent use AI for legal research and 39 percent for summarization, only 6 percent use it for creating invoices and 5 percent for client communication. Firms are deploying AI for tasks that feel productive but don’t directly touch revenue.

Why freemium tools hit a wall

General-purpose AI tools work well for research and summarization. The problem isn’t that they’re bad, but that they plateau quickly.

That ceiling is exactly why legal-specific platforms like Harvey—built from the ground up on legal data and trained on case law, contracts, and regulatory frameworks—have been gaining traction at major firms. Harvey now counts PwC, A&O Shearman, and half of the 100 highest-grossing law firms in the U.S. among its clients, and has raised over $1.2 billion, with reports of another $200 million round in the works at an $11 billion valuation—partly on the argument that generic AI simply wasn’t built for legal nuance​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.

© Inc.com