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AI in the Legal Profession: Uses and Risks

According to Thomson Reuters’ 2026 AI in Professional Services report, 41% of law firms surveyed worldwide are already using generative AI, nearly twice as many as a year earlier.

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Key terms

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The broad field of building systems that perform tasks requiring pattern recognition, reasoning, language, or decision-making.
Generative AI
AI systems that produce new content such as text, images, audio, video, or code.
AI Act
The European Union's risk-based regulatory framework for AI systems and providers.

What happened

The article discusses the uses and risks of artificial intelligence in the legal profession. It highlights the growing adoption of among law firms and the need for legal professionals to develop skills to work with these technologies. The article also explores the legal risks associated with AI, including hallucinations, and the importance of human control over judicial decisions.

According to Thomson Reuters’ 2026 AI in Professional Services report, 41% of law firms surveyed worldwide are already using , nearly twice as many as a year earlier.

The main uses of artificial intelligence in the legal field include contract management, document review and summarization, legal research, and the drafting of legal documents and contracts.

AI raises new legal questions, from data protection to liability for automated decisions. Future lawyers will need to understand the regulations governing the development and use of these technologies.

In the European Union, the Artificial Intelligence Act () establishes obligations based on the risk posed by AI systems.

Spain’s Digital Omnibus adopted in 2026 has amended some of the ’s requirements and postponed certain obligations for high-risk systems.

Source details: esade.edu

Why it matters

The use of AI in the legal profession is transforming the way lawyers conduct research, analyze contracts, and prepare legal strategies. However, it also raises new legal questions, from data protection to liability for automated decisions. Future lawyers will need to understand the regulations governing the development and use of these technologies.

The use of AI in the legal profession is transforming the way lawyers conduct research, analyze contracts, and prepare legal strategies.

However, it also raises new legal questions, from data protection to liability for automated decisions.

Future lawyers will need to understand the regulations governing the development and use of these technologies.

The article highlights the need for legal professionals to develop skills to work with AI technologies, including learning about technology, how to use it effectively, and how to apply it judiciously.

It also emphasizes the importance of understanding and responding to the implications of AI through governance and regulation.

The regulations governing AI use in the legal profession are complex and multifaceted, requiring a deep understanding of technology and its applications.

Interactive Mechanism

Interactive Mechanism: How It Actually Works

Explore the underlying technology behind this development interactively.

Thinking Budget (Test-Time Tokens):1,024 tokens
Complex Accuracy79%Math & Code Logic
Latency3.2sTime to first full output
Inference Cost$0.0092Per query estimated
Reasoning StyleStep VerificationInternal chain depth
Active Thinking Trace:
1Deconstruct user problem into formal constraints
2Propose candidate hypotheses & step-by-step calculation
3Self-correction: Backtrack and refute subtle edge cases
4Exhaustive consistency check & final output synthesis
Core takeaway: Test-time compute fundamentally changes AI economics. Instead of only scaling during pre-training, giving reasoning models more tokens at inference time allows them to systematically solve PhD-level STEM problems.
Interactive Concept Check+10 Points
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What to watch next

The article highlights the need for legal professionals to develop skills to work with AI technologies, including learning about technology, how to use it effectively, and how to apply it judiciously. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding and responding to the implications of AI through governance and regulation.

The article emphasizes the importance of developing skills to work with AI technologies, including learning about technology, how to use it effectively, and how to apply it judiciously.

It also highlights the need for legal professionals to understand and respond to the implications of AI through governance and regulation.

The article discusses the growing adoption of among law firms and the need for legal professionals to develop skills to work with these technologies.

It also explores the legal risks associated with AI, including hallucinations, and the importance of human control over judicial decisions.

The article highlights the importance of understanding and responding to the implications of AI through governance and regulation.

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