AI in Legal Departments: 2025 Benchmarking Report

Together with Counselwell, we’re proud to release the AI in Legal Departments: 2025 Benchmarking Report, based on insights from 256 in-house legal professionals across North America. The report explores how legal teams are using AI, what’s proving effective, and where challenges remain.

Here’s what stood out:

If you’re using legal AI, there’s a good chance it’s working

Of the legal department professionals already using AI, 97% say it’s either somewhat or highly effective. That includes tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Spellbook.

‍

AI adoption is no longer fringe

38% of legal department professionals already use AI, and 50% are actively exploring or considering it. Just 10% say they have no plans to adopt, meaning nearly 90% of legal department professionals are either using or moving toward AI in their workflows.

‍

AI is becoming a regular part of legal work

30% of respondents use AI tools daily, and another 38% use them weekly. That’s two-thirds of AI users making it part of their routine.

‍

Top use case: contracts

Unsurprisingly, contract drafting, review, and analysis is the #1 use case, used by 64% of AI-adopting teams. Legal research (49%), document translation (38%), and chatbots (37%) also made the list. But contracts remain the fastest path to ROI.

What it means

AI adoption is growing fast, and for most, it’s delivering results. But we’re still in the early stages. ROI isn’t being measured consistently, and trust and data privacy remain big blockers.

This report gives us a baseline. From here, it’s about maturing how we train, measure, and integrate AI tools, —so legal teams can stop doing grunt work and start creating leverage.

Read the full report to see where your team stacks up.