A new survey of more than 250 senior in-house lawyers has revealed how corporate legal teams are ramping up their investment in cutting-edge AI technology.
This year’s Legal Tech Pulse survey, conducted by Legal Business in association with Thomson Reuters, found that almost two-thirds (62%) of in-house legal functions now have an approved budget for legal tech investments over the next 12 months, significantly up from just under half (48%) last year.
Further underlining that momentum, 50% of respondents to the survey said that their budget for legal tech investments had increased this year, with only 5% saying their budget had been reduced.
With the rapid rise of AI-powered legal tech high on the agenda for the legal profession, around a quarter of respondents to the survey said that they expected to invest more than 50% of their total budget in AI solutions over the next year.
The survey canvassed senior in-house lawyers from around the world, with a focus on the UK and Continental Europe. General counsel and heads of legal interviewed for the research talked of the pace of change in recent months and the transformational effect that new tech has had on their operations..
Nina Cronstedt, chief legal officer at Stockholm-listed security company Verisure, said her team had witnessed huge change over the past six months, and that new technology had ‘truly changed the way we work.’
‘There has been a tremendous acceleration in the last six months in terms of what the enterprise AI tools are able to deliver, the breadth of pick-up across the function, and the number of use cases now fully deployed.’
EY Luxembourg GC Antonio Benitez-Donoso echoed the sentiment. ‘Quoting Hercules – we’ve gone from zero to hero,’ he said. ‘We have gone from small-scale, personal use to automating processes and accelerating contract review.’
The responses to the survey also provided hard evidence of how GCs are finding it significantly easier to get support from the wider business for investment in legal tech, with 31% now describing it as ‘quite’ or ‘very’ easy to get buy-in – up from under 20% last year.
At the same time, resistance is falling, with the proportion of respondents saying securing buy-in is ‘not very easy’ or ‘almost impossible’ falling to 21% this year, way down from last year’s equivalent figure of 43%.
Alex Graydon, associate general counsel at Thomson Reuters, says she is increasingly hearing from peers about how it is becoming easier to secure budget for AI investment.
‘The reason for that is because there is an expectation and an understanding that you can’t do without AI anymore,’ she says. ‘It’s no longer a “nice to have” – it’s an essential business tool.’
The Legal Tech Pulse 2026 report, produced by Legal Business in association with Thomson Reuters, offers a comprehensive look at how in-house legal teams are embracing technological change, drawing on a survey of over 250 GC and senior lawyers.
The full report will be released later this month – ahead of the release, the findings will be discussed in a dedicated webinar on 24 September. Click here for more information and to register for the webinar.
