Some organizations are taking the additional step of banning unauthorized use of AI at work altogether. However, these organizations are not the majority, and many more have taken stances in the last year that they will not ban unauthorized use of AI at work.
Many corporate lawyers use artificial intelligence applications at their own risk, without having been endorsed by their companies, as can be seen from the responses provided by company lawyers in the report Generative artificial intelligence in professional services 2024, prepared by the Thomson Reuters Institute.
So it appears that more people are using AI for their own work compared to what they said their organization did. When asked if they specifically use AI tools for their own work, almost half of all respondents (47%) say they are already using or plan to use public-facing AI tools like ChatGPT in the next three years.
Among certain professionals, such as those specializing in the tax and risk sectors, personal use is even higher, with 54% and 61%, respectively, citing their use of open source AI tools for work in the coming years. three years.
However, the majority say they do not use it but are considering it: almost a quarter say they already used this type of AI (12%) or had active plans to use it (11%). The study explains that some organizations are taking the additional step to completely ban unauthorized use of AI at work. However, these organizations are not the majority, and many more have taken stances in the last year that they will not ban unauthorized use of AI at work.
An extensive survey of managers
The survey was conducted online with 1,128 members of the legal professions, conducted in January and February 2024. Participants were based in the United States (48%), United Kingdom (19%), Canada (16%), Australia (14%). %) and New Zealand (4%). Most are partners, managers or directors, general or deputy legal counsel, lawyers or judges. 52% of respondents from legal departments, 49% from tax departments, and 49% from risk departments show positive feelings toward the future of AI in their industries.
Those who doubt fundamentally refer (20%) to the precision of the answers (prompts), to the promised results (18%) and to excessive dependence (16%). A majority of them, however, consider that the potential of AI serves to save costs, allows more time to be spent on high-value tasks and helps with quality controls.
Respondents from corporate legal departments are the most likely to believe that AI can be applied to their work: 88%, only 3% deny it and 9% have not considered it.
At the opposite extreme, tax and accounting departments are the least likely to believe that AI can be applied to their work, but even then, 73% say yes, while only 5% say no and the rest say no. know. Its use is greater among legal professionals and those dedicated to corporate risk and fraud than among those who work in taxes and accounting or administration.
Almost a third (32%) respond that they are considering whether or not to use AI at work, while 45% acknowledge that they have no plans to use it at the moment. Furthermore, more than half of respondents from corporate legal departments (58%) and corporate tax departments (56%), as well as almost half from judicial systems (44%) and government legal departments (40%) %), consider that the external firms they work with should use AI.
Greater professional training
Lawyers in corporate risk departments (38%) and corporate legal departments (25%) have the highest proportion of staff AI training, while less than 20% of lawyers in law firms and tax offices have received AI training.
In addition, more than half show inaccurate answers as their main concerns about AI (70%); data security (68%); data privacy and confidentiality (62%); compliance with laws and regulations (60%); and ethical and responsible use (57%).
With all this change on the horizon, many organizations are already beginning to plan structural changes to the way they approach staff and business operations that will occur as a result.
Ultimately, many organizations will begin to find new ways of working as a direct result of AI technology. Some have already started actively training their staff on the proper use of AI. While this remains a minority among respondents, the positive portion is beginning to approach 40% within corporate risk and fraud departments.
The tax sector continues to lag in training, with only 12% of respondents saying their organization has provided AI training. A small but notable minority of all respondents also reported not knowing whether their organization provides AI training, and this was especially true in court systems, where 25% of respondents stated this.
The new profession of ‘promt engineers’
The prompt engineers They are at the heart of the AI revolution, and their role will be increasingly vital in creating smarter and more efficient AI systems. Incorporating technology is not just hiring a legatech solution.
A prompt engineer is a professional specialized in the design and optimization of the instructions or prompts given to generative AI models, such as ChatGPT. The future is promising for law graduates and is full of opportunities in this area.
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