General counsel (GCs) are increasingly using legal tech in their business ops, according to a recently-published survey conducted by GC Magazine in partnership with the World Services Group. 55% of the survey respondents said that use of technology in their organizations had recently increased. The survey results were based on conversations with over 200 GCs active in the markets of Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and North America, giving the research a global perspective.
It’s encouraging that a clear majority of GCs have increased their use of legal tech recently. Arguably even more positive is the news that 11% of the survey respondents whose companies haven’t increased the use of legal tech recently already had some kind of legal software in place. This indicates a long-term trend towards adopting modern technology to stay competitive — almost certainly driven by market forces.
36% of the individuals surveyed are members of organizations that have never adopted any legal tech tools. The reasons given for this are essentially budgetary. Amid an abundance of legal tech tools, some are highly sophisticated, possibly AI-based and likely to be expensive, while others like Word or Adobe may be comparatively cheap and easy to procure, but less able to address the specific needs of GCs, the research tells us. Exploring the market to find the right software and then testing it takes time, effort and manpower — for which many companies don’t make provisions in their budgets. None of the respondents indicated that they were deliberately choosing not to adopt legal tech for fear of it being ineffective or a temporary trend, the research notes.
It’s striking that some 40% of the GCs surveyed who use legal tech make use of AI-powered tools, equating to roughly 20% of the total survey participants. Over 16% of the GC survey respondents who use legal tech use e-signature tools. And more than 36% use contract management solutions — a very general term encompassing a variety of products, ranging from basic data management systems to highly advanced AI-powered software for contract review.
GCs give familiar reasons when asked what they most appreciate about legal tech, with 89% of survey respondents citing efficiency and just over 40% cost reduction. The two could be said to go hand-in-hand, with the research explicitly noting considerable overlap between them. Much of the increased efficiency in legal tech comes from automating manual work — saving time — and, as the saying goes, “time is money.” Increased pressures on GCs are also a driver for legal tech adoption, with 70% of the survey participants noting the biggest as being higher volumes of work. Again, this is unsurprising, according to the research.
In our view, the most encouraging result of this research is that the vast majority — 78% — of GCs who use legal software were able to measure its benefits. However, it remains unclear whether the impact of this will be enough to push these practitioners to pursue further legal transformation in their departments.
Authors: Lucy Marx, Vojislav Bajic