AI adoption in legal industry reaches near universal levels, report finds

A new 2026 report from Secretariat and ACEDS says generative AI has moved from experimentation to everyday use across the legal industry. The findings show broad adoption, but also rising concerns over privacy, hallucinations and defensibility as firms expand AI into core workflows.

Why it matters: - The legal industry is moving from testing AI tools to embedding them in routine work. - The shift affects document drafting, legal research, review, summarization, eDiscovery and other core workflows. - The report says firms now face a sharper tradeoff: faster work and lower friction versus higher exposure to privacy, accuracy and defensibility risks.

What happened: - Secretariat and ACEDS released the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Report on July 23, 2026. - The study found AI has reached near universal adoption across the legal industry. - Generative AI use is now common in daily legal practice. - Respondents said GenAI is being used across document drafting, legal research, web search, document review, document summarization, eDiscovery and other legal tasks. - The report is Secretariat’s second year conducting the study with ACEDS.

The details: - 91% of respondents used generative AI in the past year. - Data privacy and confidentiality were the top barrier to adoption at 57%. - Hallucinations rose to 46% and became the second-largest barrier. - Cost came in at 40%, behind privacy and hallucinations. - 64% of respondents expect their organization’s AI investment to increase over the next 12 months. - Secretariat Managing Director Richard Finkelman said commercial GenAI tools are increasingly being used in traditional eDiscovery workflows. - Finkelman said recent cases are putting hallucinations and data privacy under closer scrutiny. - Finkelman said expert discovery is the next frontier and adoption there is still early. - Maribel Rivera, VP of Strategy and Client Engagement at ACEDS, said legal teams want practical guidance on tools, workflow fit and responsible adoption. - Rivera said education and governance need to keep pace with adoption. - Rivera said legal professionals need to validate outputs and keep human oversight central. - The report is positioned as a guide for legal professionals and organizations tracking AI trends and adoption challenges. - The report is available to download through the company announcement at the report download link.

Between the lines: - The findings suggest GenAI is no longer a side experiment in legal work. - The bigger question has shifted from whether to use AI to how to control it. - Rising concern about hallucinations signals that speed gains are being balanced against the need for proof, review and oversight. - The emphasis on governance shows the legal industry is treating AI as both a productivity tool and a compliance issue.

What's next: - Organizations are likely to keep increasing AI spending over the next year. - Adoption may broaden further into expert discovery and other higher-stakes workflows. - Legal teams are expected to place more emphasis on training, validation and governance as use expands. - The report suggests human review will remain central even as GenAI becomes more embedded in daily work.

The bottom line: - AI has become a mainstream legal workflow tool, but the industry is now focused on controlling the risks that come with scale.