Extract from Trudy Knockless’s article “In-House Teams Giving Short Shrift to AI Safeguards as They Race to Adopt Technology”
Corporate legal departments are spending more time and money than ever on artificial intelligence, but a striking lack of safeguards, strategy and IT support is leaving many at risk of costly missteps.
That’s the takeaway from “The AI Legal Divide: How Global In-House Teams Are Racing to Avoid Being Left Behind,” a new report from the on-demand legal services provider Axiom based on a global survey of more than 600 chief legal officers, general counsel and deputy general counsel across eight countries.
While AI adoption is surging—with 89% of legal departments reporting increased use this year—only 21% of teams have achieved what the report calls “AI maturity.”
The disconnect is most visible in the U.S., where 76% of corporate legal departments have significantly increased their AI budgets, one-third of them by between 26% and 33%. Yet fewer than 40% have implemented basic guardrails such as usage policies, training or privacy protections.
