Generative AI isn’t just creeping into the legal world — it’s kicking down the courtroom door. A new survey from DISCO (NYSE: LAW) and Ari Kaplan Advisors reveals a profession under mounting pressure to embrace AI-powered tools as litigation workloads balloon and data becomes more unruly by the day.
The white paper, “Legal AI: The Future of the Profession,” captures a pivotal moment in the industry: one where lawyers, already balancing cost pressures and regulatory scrutiny, must now contend with the reality that AI adoption is no longer optional.
The AI Adoption Crunch
According to the study, 43% of law firm professionals and 64% of corporate legal leaders say they’re feeling pressure from leadership to implement AI. For in-house legal teams, the mandate is especially sharp — with 61% citing cost reduction and 59% citing the need to stay technologically current as key drivers.
“There is huge cost pressure on the legal department,” one respondent noted. “It’s taking too much time to manage our contracts, so we’re looking for ways to gain efficiencies — to do more with less.”
That sense of urgency is compounded by the pace of AI innovation itself. While Technology Assisted Review (TAR) took years to gain acceptance in eDiscovery, generative AI is advancing exponentially faster — forcing firms to adapt or risk obsolescence.
From Pilots to Practice
Most legal teams surveyed plan to weave generative AI into their operations within the next year.
- 35% have already done so.
- 13% expect to finish integration within six months.
- 24% plan to follow within the year.
“Finding suitable generative AI solutions isn’t difficult,” said one participant. “It’s the sheer number of options that’s overwhelming. We need to know which tools actually perform as promised.”
eDiscovery’s Data Dilemma
As digital communication explodes, legal teams face a growing mountain of evidence. The report found 52% of respondents are already implementing new technology to manage emerging data types — from Slack messages to voice and video content — which are stretching both case timelines and team bandwidth.
“We need tools that can understand and interpret new data, and they need to do so more quickly,” one respondent said. Another added, “Utilizing advanced technology helps streamline the litigation process.”
That complexity is reshaping eDiscovery — once a niche technical process — into a core competency for legal teams.
Security Tops the List of Concerns
Interestingly, skepticism about AI’s capabilities isn’t what’s holding adoption back. Instead, data security and privacy remain the top obstacles, cited by 68% of in-house and 70% of law firm respondents.
Despite these concerns, comfort levels are rising fast. As one participant put it, “Every time I’ve taken a finished piece of work and applied generative AI, it comes back with good ideas and vastly improves the quality of what I deliver to the client.”
The Human Factor Persists
Even as AI accelerates document review and case prep, lawyers aren’t surrendering judgment to algorithms. The consensus: humans remain essential for verification, oversight, and prompt engineering — ensuring AI operates responsibly within ethical and procedural boundaries.
“The legal profession is evolving rapidly,” said Ari Kaplan, principal at Ari Kaplan Advisors. “This research captures a moment around the blistering pace of innovation. The leaders who adapt quickly are likely to deliver more dynamic performance and higher-quality work — even as cases become more complex.”
A Tipping Point for Legal Tech
For DISCO, which offers cloud-native eDiscovery and case management tools, the findings reinforce what’s already playing out in client behavior: AI is moving from experimental to operational.
“The legal technology space is changing quickly,” said Katie DeBord, DISCO’s VP of Product Strategy. “Law firms and corporations need trusted, market-ready solutions to handle growing data complexity in litigation.”
With AI now reshaping everything from document review to trial preparation, the question is no longer if law firms will adopt generative AI — but how fast they can do it while keeping data, compliance, and client trust intact.
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