Nearly half of respondents express limited confidence in AI-generated legal outputs
Only one in five lawyers say they place high trust in AI-generated legal work, according to new research that paints a picture of a profession racing to adopt the technology while remaining sceptical of its output.
A survey of more than 250 legal professionals found that 67% have had to override or correct AI-generated legal output, and nearly three in five (58%) said they would not feel comfortable submitting an AI-drafted document to a regulator or court. Meanwhile, 42% reported little to no trust in the technology at all.
The findings, complied by recruitment firm Paragon, suggest that while firms are pressing ahead with automation, significant internal friction is following close behind. Nearly half of legal professionals (47%) said AI automation has sparked conflict within their team.
Lawyers appear most willing to hand over process-driven, lower-risk tasks. Document classification, compliance alerts, risk flagging, legal research and case law summarisation ranked as the most automated functions. But work involving discretion or professional judgment remains firmly off the table for many. Some 45% said final contract approval is off-limits for AI, 42% drew the line at ethics and compliance judgments, and 37% would not entrust litigation decisions to the technology.
The concerns driving that reluctance will surprise few in the profession. Accuracy and hallucinations topped the list at 57%, followed by data security and confidentiality (51%), liability exposure (45%) and ethical risks (44%). The anxiety is not without foundation, given recent high-profile instances of lawyers being criticised for citing fabricated AI-generated case law in court.
When asked what would increase their confidence, 41% pointed to mandatory human sign-off, while 20% wanted explainable decision-making and 17% called for built-in compliance guardrails. A stubborn 15% said nothing would make them trust AI regardless.
Despite the scepticism, almost two-thirds (62%) expect their team’s AI use to increase moderately or significantly over the next year. That shift is also expected to reshape recruitment, with 43% predicting a reduction in hiring or staffing needs because of automation. By contrast, 21% said they expect to recruit more tech-savvy staff to keep pace.