P E E R T O P E E R M A G A Z I N E ยท S P R I N G 2 0 2 6
9
CHARTING THE
MATURITY
LEGAL
A
I maturity is not
about how many
tools a law firm
has tested. It is
not about how
many pilots
have been run, how many vendor
meetings have been held, or how
many lawyers have experimented
with a general-purpose assistant.
To assess maturity, we need to
understand if the firm has built
the institutional capability to turn
falling intelligence costs into better
legal work, better economics, and
more defensible outcomes.
Three years after ChatGPT's
release, the legal industry has
moved past its initial surprise
phase. The early debate focused
on generative AI's credibility, its
capabilities beyond superficial
drafting, and the profession's
response. Some lawyers were
impressed immediately. Others
dismissed it as another overhyped
tool struggling with real legal
complexity. Many assumed that
any meaningful impact would take
a long time.
AI adoption among legal
professionals surged from 19%
in 2023 to nearly 79% by 2025, a
fourfold increase in two years.
Among private law firms, the ABA
reports adoption jumped from
11% to 30% over the same period,
with larger firms showing faster
uptake: 46% of firms with over 100
attorneys now use AI tools.
Saraswat
