Key highlights:

• • • Three emerging business models, one unresolved tension听鈥� AI is compressing time, which directly threatens the logic of billing by the hour, but the smartest law firms are not waiting for a winner to emerge before building their strategic foundation.

    • Technology strategy and talent strategy are the same conversation 鈥� The talent model must be designed in tandem with the business model, even amid uncertainty, because many of the structural conditions of legal work are changing all at once.

    • The next great lawyer will lead with human skills, not tool proficiency听鈥� Forward-thinking firms are doubling down on their lawyers鈥� curiosity, judgment, client skills, and relationship-building as these capabilities are those that AI cannot replicate.

Every law firm is asking how AI will change the way legal work gets done; but , Chief Legal Operations Officer at , is asking a more consequential question: How will AI change the way legal work gets听paid for?

Planning around 3 law firm business models in the AI era

AI is making law firms more efficient, of course, but efficiency alone does not answer the harder question of how to capture value and how AI-enabled legal services get priced. Olson Bluvshtein sees three paths emerging in law firms:

1. 1. 1. Billable-hour (still) 鈥� The first is the path of least resistance. Firms stay anchored to the billable hour, raise rates, and use AI to move faster and handle more volume, with the idea that more volume will make up the revenue losses of faster work. With this model, however, the client-firm incentive misalignment remains intact, and the fundamental tension between billing for time and AI compressing that time never gets resolved.
      2. Value-based pricing 鈥� The fixed fee pathway also is likely to gain further traction, as it鈥檚 one that many AI-native law firms are pursuing. In this model, value-based pricing creates a natural meeting point between firm and client interests because when incentives align, everyone wins, Olson Bluvshtein explains.
      3. Frontier models rule 鈥� The third scenario is more speculative but worth watching. As foundational models improve, the need for expensive legal-specific tools may diminish. “I could see a scenario in the future in which we don’t necessarily need all the legal-specific tools that are out there,” she says. Even though technology costs historically come down, cheaper tools do not make the business model question disappear, Olson Bluvshtein notes.

Candidly, Olson Bluvshtein admits that 鈥渢he truth is probably somewhere in the middle,” and the firms best positioned for any of these futures are the ones building the strategic and operational foundation now rather than waiting for the answer to become obvious.

Indeed, the most thoughtfully designed business model will fall short without the right talent foundation to support it. 鈥淭echnology strategy and people strategy are not separate conversations,鈥� Olson Bluvshtein says, adding that they are key parts of the same strategy.

Legal innovation consultant reinforces this point in , noting that many aspects of the structural foundation under which the legal profession has operated are changing all at once. This means that addressing the technology strategy separately from the human side, slice by slice, does not make sense.

Boyko says she encourages law firms to take a step back and approach the problem by identifying what the firm will need first in the future and then plan the talent and tech part for that reality.

Aligning the talent model to the future business model

Not surprisingly, a key challenge for law firms right now is that the future is uncertain. Therefore, it is difficult to design a talent model for an uncertain future and an unknown business model. At the same time, there are some known facts, but the unknown aspect is when these certainties will occur.

More specifically, what is known is that there is mounting pressure on the three possible law firm business models because AI is automating the tasks of past junior associates, clients do not want to pay for tasks completed by junior associates, and clients are bringing more legal work in-house, often until the time when the almost final deliverable is handed over to outside counsel for final review.

To explore the right talent model, one experiment that Boyko suggests is to expand the junior associate experience to include rotations through back-office functions, such as knowledge management, professional development, and technology functions.

At law firm Fredrikson & Byron, Olson Bluvshtein says its associate development program is evolving to prepare for the uncertain future based on three current tactics:

• • • Building AI fluency 鈥� This is a near-term imperative that will soon become table stakes. The goal is to move past basic adoption into something more sophisticated and durable. To enable this, the litigation and M&A practices at Fredrikson are actively working with a variety of tools to test prompts that they can then share more broadly with other teams, while also identifying how AI policy guidance will evolve.
    • Accelerating the development of legal judgment 鈥� Shortening the learning curve for developing legal judgment, which includes the ability to supervise and efficiently validate AI-produced work, is the second essential part of the firm鈥檚 talent development framework. Olson Bluvshtein is candid about where things stand. 鈥淚t has not fully happened yet,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut building the training infrastructure to operationalize this is a stated goal for the year ahead, including formalized curriculum around effectively and efficiently supervising AI output.鈥�
    • Being hyper-focused on the development and recruiting of human skills 鈥� Doubling down on the human skills 鈥� including client development, negotiation, relationship-building, and sound judgment 鈥� that technology cannot replicate are the capabilities that will define the next generation of great lawyers, regardless of which law firm business model ultimately prevails.

This same philosophy is shaping how Fredrikson recruits. Rather than screening candidates for a checklist of AI tools, the firm is prioritizing curiosity, openness, and the ability to demonstrate human skills. Indeed, the firm is looking for lawyers “who are really good at those human skills鈥� and who bring the kind of judgment and adaptability that compounds over time, explains Olson Bluvshtein.

Boyko underscores a similar approach to skills. 鈥淩ight now, the skills needed to be a good lawyer are no longer those rote skills that AI can automate,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚nstead, they are the people skills, the operational skills, and the client skills.鈥�

Of course, moving from broad experimentation to disciplined, firm-wide maturity takes time, and the gap between early movers and late adopters is already widening. Those firms that will define the next era of legal services already are asking how AI changes the way it delivers value and what skills its lawyers will most need 鈥� and not just looking for the next tool to buy.

You can learn more about the challenges facing legal talent here

Key takeaways:

• • • Agentic AI poised for adoption uptick 鈥� Agentic AI is following GenAI’s rapid adoption in the legal industry, with less than 20% of firms currently implementing agentic systems but half planning or considering adoption in the near future, according to a new report.

    • Adoption depends on human oversight answers 鈥� Legal professionals are generally optimistic about agentic AI’s potential, but successful adoption depends on explicit guidance about human oversight and the lawyer’s role in maintaining ethical standards.

    • Time to retool AI education? 鈥� Agentic AI’s increased autonomy introduces new oversight and ethical challenges for law firms, making targeted education and clear guidance essential to understanding the differences from GenAI.

Over the past several years, law firms and corporate legal departments have turned towards generative AI en masse. At the beginning of 2024, just 14% of all law firms and legal departments featured an enterprise-wide GenAI tool. Just two years later, that number had already risen to 43% of all firms and departments, according to the 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, from the 成人VR视频 Institute (TRI). For large law firms or legal departments, those percentages 鈥� not surprisingly 鈥� are beginning to approach 100%.

With GenAI adoption now this widespread, legal industry leaders are now turning their attention to two primary initiatives. One, of course, is how to get the most out of the AI tools they already have 鈥� a task that is proving a bit elusive. Currently, less than 20% of lawyers say their organizations measure AI鈥檚 return-on-investment, and most corporate lawyers say they have no idea how their outside law firms are approaching AI. Thus, instituting not just AI tools, but also an AI strategy is the second top priority for law firms and corporate legal departments in 2026 and beyond.

However, even as the legal industry reaches a tipping point in adopting GenAI tools, technology innovation still continues unabated. Agentic AI has emerged as the next wave of innovation that could change how lawyers work on a daily basis, offering a way to autonomously complete multi-step tasks. For example, agentic AI systems are already being built for the legal industry that independently researches a regulation or law, drafts a document based on the finding, identifies pitfalls, and revises the document, with stops for human guidance only instituted as desired.

According to the AI in Professional Services Report, the legal industry is already making headway towards implementing agentic AI systems. For agentic AI to truly take hold in legal, however, lawyers still require more education around not only how it differs from the GenAI systems they already have in place, but also when and where human intervention needs to occur within an agentic system.

The early stages of agentic AI

Examining current agentic AI adoption for the legal industry almost takes one back in time 鈥� two years, to be exact. Following the public release of GenAI in late-2022, many legal industry organizations spent 2023 evaluating and experimenting with AI systems, usually with a small working group of interested guinea pigs. As a result, only 14% of survey respondents said their law firms or corporate legal departments were engaged in organization-wide GenAI rollouts at the start of 2024. However, more than half of respondents said their organizations expected to be rolling out large-scale GenAI systems over the next 1 to 3 years. The intervening two years since then have proved that prediction to be largely true.

Agentic AI usage in the first half of 2026 looks largely similar to GenAI in 2024. The legal industry started to experiment with agentic AI at the beginning of 2025, with an eye towards actual implementation in 2026 and beyond (particularly as legal software providers began to integrate agentic systems into their own products). As such, less than 20% of recent survey respondents say their organization is engaged in widespread agentic AI adoption, but with about half of respondents said their organization is either planning to use or considering whether to use agentic AI in the near future.

By and large, lawyers feel positive about the agentic AI movement. When asked about their sentiment towards agentic AI, 51% of legal industry respondents said they felt excited or hopeful, while just 19% said they felt concerned or fearful. Further, about half (47%) said they actively believe agentic AI should be used for legal work, while 22% felt it should not, with the remainder saying they were unsure. These figures largely track with the sentiments expressed about GenAI in 2024, which have only grown over time from about 50% positive two years ago to two-thirds of all legal professionals feeling positive currently.

This all lends further credence to a rise in agentic AI usage similar to what law firms and corporate legal departments experienced with GenAI over the course of 2024 and 2025. Indeed, when asked when they expect agentic AI to be a central part of their workflow, few have baked agentic systems into their daily work currently, but a majority of legal industry respondents expect it to be central within the next 3 to 5 years.

The unique barriers of agentic AI adoption

Agentic AI does differ from GenAI in one crucial area that may limit its growth potential within the legal industry, however 鈥� autonomy. By and large, GenAI systems operate on a back-and-forth basis: Users provide the tool a prompt, receive its output, and then iterate back-and-forth from there. Agentic AI is intended to be more automated by design, only requiring human input at pre-determined points in the process. And that makes some lawyers understandably nervous.

When asked why they might feel hesitant about using agentic AI for legal tasks, the most common answer was a general fear of the unknown, but the second most common answer dealt with the need for careful monitoring and oversight. In fact, some respondents said they were excited about GenAI, but more cautious about agentic AI鈥檚 potential.

鈥淎gentic AI, while exciting, to me removes oversight a step too far,鈥� said one such lawyer from a US law firm. 鈥淚 like the idea of prompting and reviewing a result. It is something else to have a machine have so much autonomy in the actual doing of a thing and potentially acting on my behalf without that very concrete review.鈥�

Please add your voice to 成人VR视频鈥� flagship , a global study exploring how the professional landscape continues to change.听

An assistant GC at a US company also pointed to potential privacy and security concerns, adding: 鈥淭he fact that agentic AI operates in a much more autonomous way, with a lack of control from the user, means there are many unknowns that are hidden beneath the process.鈥�

For law firm and corporate legal department leaders looking to potentially implement agentic AI systems into their practice, this means re-thinking what AI education and training will mean moving forward. Beyond that, however, legal AI educators also will need to make sure to pinpoint and perhaps over-explain those specific instances in which human oversight needs to occur in agentic systems. More autonomous does not mean fully autonomous, and particularly for lawyers with ethical duties to their work product, lawyer oversight will in fact be a necessary part of any agentic system.

For law firm or legal department leaders, that means that finding the right balance between efficient workflows and human intervention will be key to agentic AI adoption. And those organizations that can best communicate human-in-the-loop to their professionals up-front will be rewarded with more increased and reliable adoption.

Clearly, lawyers feel positively about the agentic AI future, after all. They just need it spelled out explicitly as to what the lawyer鈥檚 role will be in this new paradigm.

鈥淎gentic AI is powerful, but its moral compass must come from humans,鈥� one UK law firm barrister noted aptly. 鈥淟awyers are trained to safeguard fairness, rights, and the rule of law 鈥� principles that should guide how AI is designed, governed, and deployed. Hope lies in our ability to shape AI through these values for fairer values for society as a whole.鈥�

You can download a full copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚听2026 AI in Professional Services Report听here

Key takeaways:

• • • Employees face contradictory messages or none at all 鈥� Nearly 40% of professionals surveyed report receiving conflicting directives about AI usage from clients and leadership, while half report no client conversations about AI have occurred at all.

    • Workers lack feedback on whether their AI efforts matter 鈥� Professionals who are experimenting with AI tools without knowing if their efforts are valued are left uncertain about whether investing time in developing AI skills is worth it.

    • Job displacement fears are rising 鈥� While employees remain cautiously optimistic about AI usage in their workplace, concerns about job displacement have doubled over the past year.

As generative AI (GenAI) tools flood into legal and accounting workplaces, organizations are deploying powerful technology without giving their employees clear directions on how to use it. Worse, some have received no guidance.

New research that underpinned the recent 2026 AI in Professional Services Report听from the 成人VR视频 Institute (TRI), reveals a disconnect between AI availability and organizational guidance, which is creating confusion that may undermine both employee experience and the technology鈥檚 potential value. (The report鈥檚 data was gathered from surveys of more than 1,500 legal, tax, accounting, and compliance professionals across 26 countries.)

Employees navigate inconsistent AI policies or none at all

Approximately 40% of the professionals surveyed said they received contradictory guidance from clients and leadership about AI tool usage, with directives both encouraging and discouraging their use on projects and in RFPs. This ambivalence is slowing down decision-making at the front lines 鈥� a place in which AI could deliver the most value.

Equally concerning is the fact that half of professionals indicated that no conversations with clients about AI tool usage have taken place yet. And when discussions do occur, concerns about data protection and accuracy are the main topics.

This confusion extends to external relationships as well. More than two-thirds of corporate and government clients remain unaware of whether their outside professional service providers are even utilizing GenAI. And the majority of clients have provided no direction whatsoever to their outside law firms concerning AI use, respondents said.

Organizations often ignore what employees need to know

Perhaps most revealing is how organizations are measuring 鈥� or failing to measure 鈥� whether their AI investments are paying off. Almost half of respondents said their organizations are not measuring return on investment (ROI) at all. Among the minority (18%) of respondents that said their organizations do track ROI, the metrics they use tell a story about organizational priorities. That fact that internal cost savings and employee usage rates lead the list suggests a focus on efficiency over innovation or quality improvements.

This measurement vacuum has consequences for employee experience. Without clear success metrics, employees lack feedback on whether their AI experimentation is valued, discouraged, or even noticed. The absence of ROI frameworks also makes it hard to justify training investments or dedicated time that allows employees to develop AI fluency.

AI usage doubles while support systems fall behind

AI usage among professional service organizations has nearly doubled over the past year, and professionals are increasingly integrating these tools into their workflows, the report shows. Yet organizational infrastructure that could support this adoption surge lags badly. Most professionals said they expect GenAI to become central to their work within the next two years 鈥� but that may be happening without roadmaps from their employers.

In addition, notable barriers in employees鈥� usage of AI remain. When asked what barriers could prevent their organization from more widely adopting GenAI and agentic AI, almost 80% of professionals cited concerns over inaccurate responses. Other concerns included worries over data security, privacy, and ethical use. Most of these suggest an ongoing lack of trust in GenAI.

The tool landscape adds another layer of complexity. Publicly available tools dominate current usage, with more than half of respondents (57%) citing their use, while proprietary or industry-specific solutions remain largely in the consideration phase. This suggests employees are often self-provisioning AI tools rather than working within enterprise-supported ecosystems. This potentially opens organizations to increased risk exposure because of security gaps, compliance risks, and inconsistent quality.

Employees鈥� job displacement fears increasing

Despite these challenges, employee sentiment toward AI remains cautiously optimistic. More than half (57%) of respondents said they are either hopeful or excited about the future of GenAI in their industry. Clearly, employees see AI’s potential to enhance their efficiency, automate routine tasks, and free up their time for higher-value work.

At the same time, hesitation and concern among employees are rising, particularly around accuracy, job displacement fears, and the unknown implications of autonomous AI systems. Notably, concerns about job displacement have doubled over the past year, and this trend demands organizational attention and transparent communication about a workforce strategy to combat this concern.

What organizations need to do now

Organizational leaders who are serious about positive employee AI experiences need to step up their efforts to provide guidance to employees and gain the ROI that AI promises. Specific steps they can take include:

• • • Draft clear and consistent guidance 鈥� Create explicit policies for employees about in which instances AI use is encouraged, required, or prohibited. This includes client communication protocols, data-handling requirements, and escalation procedures in those situations in which AI outputs seem questionable.
    • Develop and implement meaningful ROI metrics 鈥� Organizations must move beyond usage rates and cost savings as key success measurements. Tracking data points that capture quality improvements, time redeployed to strategic work, and client feedback on AI-enhanced deliverables present a more comprehensive picture. Also, leaders need to share these metrics transparently in order to give employees an understanding about organizational priorities.
    • Invest in structured learning 鈥� The survey shows professionals are experimenting with dozens of different tools from ChatGPT to specialized legal tech platforms. Organizations should curate recommended toolsets, provide hands-on training, and create communities of practice in which employees can share effective prompts and use cases with other users.

Our data shows that the employee experience around AI adoption reveals a workforce that is hopeful but hungry for direction and concerned about job impacts. Leaders who implement these actions effectively are more likely to unlock the strategic value that AI promises while building the trust and competence needed for their organizations and its employees to thrive in an automated future.

You can download a full copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚听2026 AI in Professional Services Report听here

Key findings:

• • • AI adoption accelerates across professional services听鈥� Organization-wide use of AI in professional services almost doubled to 40% in 2026, with most individual professionals now using GenAI tools, and many preparing for the next wave of tools such as agentic AI.

    • Strategic integration and measurement lag behind usage 鈥� While AI use is widespread, only 18% of respondents say their organization tracks ROI of AI tools, and even fewer measure AI’s impact on broader business goals such as client satisfaction or revenue generation.

    • Communication around AI use remains inconsistent听鈥� While most corporate departments want their outside firms to use AI on client matters, less than one-third are aware whether their firms are doing so. Meanwhile, firms report receiving conflicting instructions from clients about AI use, highlighting a need for clearer dialogue and shared strategy around AI adoption.

Over the past several years, AI usage within professional services industries has come into focus. As we enter 2026 in earnest, the early adoption phase of generative AI (GenAI) has come and gone. Today, most professionals have experimented with some form of GenAI, and many organizations integrated GenAI into their workflows 鈥� and now, a number are preparing for the next wave of technological innovation such as agentic AI.

Given this, the question for professionals and organizational leaders has now become: What will be AI鈥檚 long-term impact on my business?

Jump to 鈫�

2026 AI in Professional Services Report

To delve into this question further, the 成人VR视频 Institute has released its 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, which takes a broad view into the current usage and planning, sentiment towards, and business impact of AI for legal, tax & accounting, corporate functions, and government agencies. Taken from a survey of more than 1,500 respondents across 27 different countries, the report finds a professional services world that has embraced AI鈥檚 use but is continuing to evolve business strategy around its implementation.

For instance, the report shows that to 40% in 2026, compared to 22% in 2025 鈥� and for the first time, a majority of individual professionals reported using publicly-available tools such as ChatGPT. Additionally, a majority of respondents said they feel either excited or hopeful for GenAI鈥檚 prospects in their respective industries, and about two-thirds said they felt GenAI should be applied to their work in some manner.

At the same time, however, many are exploring GenAI tools without much guidance as to how that use will be quantified or measured. Only 18% of respondents said they knew their organization was tracking return-on-investment (ROI) of AI tools in some manner, roughly the same proportion as last year. And even among those tracking AI metrics, most are tracking mainly internally-focused, operational metrics; and only a small proportion analyzed AI鈥檚 impact on their organization鈥檚 larger business goals 鈥� such as client satisfaction, external revenue generation, and new business won.

This slow move to strategic thinking also impacts client-firm relationships. Although more than half of both corporate legal departments and corporate tax departments want their outside firms to use AI on client matters, less than one-third said they were aware whether their firms were doing so or not. From the firm standpoint, meanwhile, confusion reigns: 40% of firm respondents said they have received orders both to use AI on matters and not to use AI on matters from various clients.

Indeed, bout three-quarters of corporate respondents and firm respondents agreed that firms should be taking the lead in starting these conversations around proper AI use. Yet these discussions have not yet happened en masse. 鈥淔irms are reluctant 鈥� they claim it would compromise quality and fidelity,鈥� said one U.S.-based corporate chief legal officer. 鈥淚 think they are threatened by it.鈥�

All the while, technological innovation progresses ever quicker. This year鈥檚 version of the report measures agentic AI use for the first time, finding that already 15% of organizations have adopted some type of agentic AI tool. Perhaps more interesting, however, is that an additional 53% report their organizations are either actively planning for agentic AI tools or are considering whether to use them, indicating perhaps an even more rapid pace of adoption than we鈥檝e already seen with the speedy rise of GenAI.

Overall, the report makes it clear that most professionals do understand that change, driven by AI in the workplace, is undoubtedly here. Even compared with 2025, a higher proportion of professionals said they believe that AI will have a major impact on jobs, billing and revenue, and even the need for legal or tax & accounting professionals as a whole. The percentage of lawyers calling AI a major threat to the unauthorized practice of law rose to 50% in 2026 from 36% in 2025.

Further, this report paints the picture of a professional services world that has embraced AI, begun to see its impact, and realized that it will have broader business and industry implications than previously imagined. As a result, the time for professionals and organizations to begin planning in earnest for an AI future has already arrived.

As a corporate general counsel from Sweden noted: 鈥淲e cannot keep up with the modern-day corporations鈥� demands unless we also develop and adapt our way of working.鈥�

You can download

a full copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute’s 2026 AI in Professional Services Report听here

Key findings:

• • There鈥檚 a gap between AI awareness and understanding 鈥� The recent 2025 Future of Professionals Report shows that while 96% of professionals have at least a basic awareness of AI, 71% lack a strong understanding of its practical applications. This gap limits professional services organizations from truly maximizing their investment in AI tools.

  • AI strategy drives both professional development and ROI听鈥� Professionals with good or expert AI knowledge were found to be 2.8-times as likely to see organizational benefits from AI when compared to those with lesser knowledge. Similarly, companies and firms with a visible, top-down AI strategy are 3.5-times as likely to see positive returns on investment from AI. Both show a clear benefit to aligning skills training and overall organization AI strategy.

  • Identifying and addressing AI-related skills gaps is essential 鈥� Nearly half of professionals said they see skills gaps within their teams, including both technical and soft skills needed for successful AI adoption. Leaders who identify these gaps and tailor AI training to specific team needs will maximize the benefits of AI in the workplace.

In the nearly three years since ChatGPT introduced generative AI (GenAI) to a wide public audience, AI applications have increasingly been making their way into business tools and workflows. Whether AI, GenAI, or (increasingly) agentic AI, professionals in the legal, tax & accounting, and government industries have been introduced to new AI concepts at a dizzying speed.

As many professionals try to keep up, they are understandably having trouble staying ahead of the pace of change. According to results from the recent 成人VR视频 2025 Future of Professionals Report, which examines the trends impacting professionals careers, most professionals at this point know what AI can do. Where they鈥檙e struggling, however, is making the next step in determining how those use cases apply to them. This leap is even more pronounced with more senior members of many organizations, the report shows.

Although many professionals now have access to these next-generation tools, it鈥檚 clear that despite their best efforts, some don鈥檛 quite know how to apply AI, GenAI, and other related technologies to the best of their ability and for maximum advantage. For senior leaders of organizations, this means a change in approach is needed 鈥� and that may mean crafting an overarching AI strategy that allows professionals to achieve real goals that will also help the organization at large.

A gap between awareness and understanding

The idea that professional services organizations are behind the times with regards to technology may be an antiquated concept. Law firms of all sizes, for instance, have continued to invest in technology at a rate above inflation for the past decade, according to the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 Law Firm Financial Index. Studies in tax & accounting and government have yielded similar results. Further, the interest in GenAI has amplified, with many large organizations adopting GenAI technologies, and even beginning to build their own proprietary systems.

With this in mind, it鈥檚 not surprising that the Future of Professionals Report found that 96% of surveyed professionals said they have some basic awareness of AI capabilities. AI has been baked into the systems that underpin daily work product and back-office functions at a rapid pace.

However, when asked whether they have an understanding of AI鈥檚 practical applications, rather than simply awareness, many professionals begin to falter. In fact, 71% said they feel they do not have a good understanding of the practical applications of AI to their own careers. This percentage is even higher for the Baby Boomers, who due to seniority are more likely to hold positions of leadership.

There are a number of reasons why this gap can have occurred, according to the research. For one, less than half (39%) of all professionals say they have personal goals linked to AI adoption, creating less of an impetus to actually setting aside precious time to discover the practical applications of these tools. Some professionals also reported that they do not feel like they have input into AI policy, or do not feel encouraged to explore new ways of working, particularly at more junior levels.

The business implications of this are clear. The research found that knowledge of AI鈥檚 applications has a direct correlation with receiving benefits from AI鈥檚 use in the organization, as professionals with good or expert AI knowledge were found to be 2.8-times as likely to see organizational benefits from AI when compared to those with lesser knowledge.

The evolution of the modern professional

Given the rapid rate of AI adoption, it鈥檚 no surprise that corporations and firms alike are increasingly looking to develop more business strategy around AI usage. And indeed, the Future of Professionals research indicates that organizations with a visible AI strategy are 3.5-times as likely to be experiencing at least one form of positive return on investment from overall AI usage.

So, how does that top-down strategy filter down to legal, tax & accounting, and government professionals themselves? According to the research, the discrepancy between AI awareness and AI understanding is not a matter of desire. Professionals want to be upskilled in this area. In fact, more than three-quarters of professionals said they are voluntarily reading reports and articles about AI in their industry, and more than two-thirds have said they鈥檝e voluntarily experimented with AI tools or held informal learning sessions with their colleagues.

Yet, the difference between awareness and understanding remains, even with these increased opportunities for learning. According to the research, however, it鈥檚 not one way of learning alone that lends itself best to closing this gap. Instead, the biggest predictor of AI proficiency is engaging in a wide variety of learning methods, both on an organizational and personal level. Put another way, it鈥檚 a plan for comprehensive training and education, rather than simply a single training session or a module.

This clearly indicates that organization leaders need to take an active role in developing a more comprehensive strategy to convert awareness into understanding 鈥� and map AI understanding to what skills their teams need to grow.

Almost half of professionals reported skills gaps within their teams that are need to be addressed before the team can become a fully actualized contributor to the organization. In many cases, these skills gaps may be technology or data skills and could include the ability to use technologies such as GenAI. In other cases, however, there may be gaps in more soft skills, areas that touch technology but are not inherently technical 鈥� such as organizational and efficiency skills, interpersonal effectiveness, and higher-order thinking.

Closing the gap between AI awareness and AI understanding will not be the same for every person and every team. The most effective leaders will be the ones who take the time to identify where those gaps exist and determine the specific use cases in which AI can be leveraged to aid those deficiencies. As the 2025 Future of Professionals Report shows, however, taking this time can yield tangible results 鈥� both in getting the most out of these new technologies and helping professionals reach their true potential in an AI-enabled future.

You can download a copy of听成人VR视频 Future of Professionals 2025 here

However, as global trade continues to grow 鈥� both in volume and complexity 鈥� there are growing concerns whether existing skills and training are keeping pace with today鈥檚 needed requirements of the profession.

The double-edged sword of technology

Technology is helping organizations deal with the growing complexity 鈥� automating numerous tasks that are otherwise laborious and time-consuming, and handling everything from the voluminous paperwork involved in shipping, logistics, and customs to drafting contracts and translating documents. And this has enabled businesses and organizations to greatly improve their efficiency, even as global trade complexity increases.

However, Rowden says she is worried that the growing use of technology could be eroding some core skills needed by global trade professionals. Many senior trade professionals gained their experience over recent decades during which global trade grew tremendously, providing them with critical grounding and foundational knowledge of how the current trade systems and policies evolved into their current state.

Citing customs as one example, Rowden explains that while specific details and policies may differ between countries, the primary building blocks are generally similar. This is largely because many of the key attributes 鈥� such as place of origin, classification, valuation, bills of lading, intellectual property ownership, etc. 鈥� have been defined, measured, and tracked literally since the dawn of cross-border trade centuries ago by caravan and sea. While processes have grown more sophisticated over time, the fundamental concepts remain largely the same.

“It鈥檚 like playing 3D or even 4D chess in order to balance and manage the multiple factors, issues and scenarios that are involved every day.鈥�

There have been significant shifts in recent decades in how global trade professionals are trained, however, Rowden says. One catalyst was the aftermath of the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which prompted a renewed emphasis on security. 鈥淲hile both understandable and necessary, given the circumstances, the increased orientation around security oftentimes came at the expense of core training on many of the basics,鈥� she adds.

Another growing trend has been the emergence into the profession of digital natives 鈥� people born after the birth of Internet 鈥� a transition that is still taking place. Rowden says she is concerned that the new generation of global trade professionals may be overly reliant on technology and are not as accustom as previous generations to thoroughly validating everything from record-keeping to decision-making. She says she believes it鈥檚 critical for today鈥檚 trading professionals to understand and question the underlying data, calculations, assumptions, and scenarios rather than simply relying on the outputs contained in a spreadsheet or other application.

鈥淭rade is a highly data-intensive field,鈥� explains Rowden. 鈥淚 teach global trade as an adjunct professor, and I鈥檝e increasingly noticed that many students can鈥檛 discern between different sources of information and have difficulty validating information.

鈥淵ou may have heard the phrase 鈥榯here is but one truth,鈥欌�� she adds. 鈥淔or trade, you want there to be one truth: the system of record. Validation is a critical part of the process for ensuring the integrity of data within the system of record. And not having the necessary expertise for carrying out that validation could pose serious problems. I see this as a growing exposure for both government agencies and private sector companies.鈥�

Need for global trade education

Academia can play a key role in bridging these skills gaps, she says, noting that academic programs may be best equipped to develop the multi-disciplinary curriculum that will be needed. Indeed, today鈥檚 global trade environment requires that professionals possess a comprehensive range of skills to tackle the growing complexity of the field.

鈥淭here鈥檚 an incredible number of moving parts in global trade,鈥� says Rowden. 鈥淚t requires sophisticated understanding of economic, tax, and trade policies and how they interact, as well as technical skills such as data analytics and management. Developing curriculum to cover all of these fields and integrate them into a global trade discipline will be challenging.鈥� Further, Rowden says she believes that certification programs will be essential to improving and expanding global standardization of trade practices. Currently, however, the industry generally lacks certification programs that are dedicated specifically to global trade.

Looking ahead, the continued adoption of generative AI into trade operations will change how global trade work is conducted, what skills trade professionals will need, and what educational tools will be available and most effective. For Rowden, that is all the more reason why improved education and certification are essential ways to ensure that global trade professionals are in a position to successfully manage global trade as it continues to grow in complexity.

You can download a full copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚听听here

For professionals in legal, tax, risk & fraud, and government industries, the shift has been both quick and dramatic. Already more than half of all legal, tax, risk & fraud and government professionals have used GenAI in some fashion, with a wide range of use cases already arising, according to the newly published 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report. In fact, the report shows that professionals from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand are not only expecting GenAI to become a more common part of their work, but they鈥檙e feeling more positive about the impact GenAI will have on their profession.

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However, even with usage skyrocketing, many of the firms, departments, and agencies in which these professionals work still have a way to go to fully extract value from GenAI. The report shows that few organizations are capturing return-on-investment (ROI) metrics, regularly training staff on GenAI updates, or integrating GenAI use into their policies. In addition, few professionals say their firms and their clients are having conversations around GenAI use. And even more worrisome, questions about GenAI鈥檚 impact on billing rates and costs remain unanswered.

This year鈥檚 report reflects a crossroads: GenAI itself is seeing adoption on a wide scale, but professional services industries largely still have yet to discern what it means for the future of their businesses.

Key findings in the report

Some key findings in this year鈥檚 Generative AI in Professional Services Report include:

• • • Steady usage increases 鈥� A large portion (41%) of respondents said they personally use publicly-available tools such as ChatGPT, and 17% said they personally use industry-specific GenAI tools. On an organization-wide level, the percentage of respondents who said their organizations were actively using GenAI nearly doubled over the past year, to 22% in 2025, compared to 12% in 2024.
    • Soon to be central to workflow 鈥� Just 13% said GenAI is central to their organizations, workflow currently, but an additional 29% said they believe it will be central within the next year. Further, 95% of all respondents believe it will be central to their organization鈥檚 workflow within the next five years.

• • • Maintaining positivity 鈥� More than half (55%) of all respondents categorize their sentiment towards GenAI in their profession as excited or hopeful. Meanwhile, the proportion who said they were hesitant, concerned or fearful fell 12 percentage points over the past year.
    • Business questions remain 鈥� Only 20% said they knew their organizations were measuring ROI of GenAI, and many firm respondents remain unsure about GenAI鈥檚 impact on rates or client costs. And while 57% of corporate clients want their outside firms to be using GenAI, 71% of law firms鈥� clients and 59% of tax firms鈥� clients said they did not know whether their firms were using it or not.
    • Policies & training still needed 鈥� More than half of respondents (52%) said they believed their organizations had no policies around GenAI at work, whether a standalone policy or as part of a larger technology policy. Nearly two-thirds (64%), meanwhile, said they had received no GenAI training at work.

At this point, it is evident that GenAI is here to stay. Professionals across multiple industries are adopting it for their own personal use in droves, whether leveraging free tools or, increasingly, business or industry-specific technologies. Organization-wide adoption is beginning to occur as well, albeit slowly.

The question, then, becomes what will professional services industries do with GenAI once it鈥檚 adopted. As the report reveals, many may not yet know 鈥� but they do know they need to begin having those conversations quickly.

鈥淭he next 24 months will be extremely telling on the impact of GenAI on the legal industry and professional work more broadly,鈥� said one Australian law firm attorney. 鈥淎s products move out of development [and in]to production, we will be able to see the actual effects of this technology across various sectors.鈥�

You can download a full copy of the 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report here

The professional services world is far from immune from these changes. In fact, given the conversational nature of GenAI technology, professionals in the legal, tax & accounting, risk & compliance, and government fields may be those whose daily lives will be most changed by GenAI鈥檚 introduction.

Still, even with its rapid adoption, the full impact of GenAI on professional services has not been felt 鈥� yet. Here鈥檚 how GenAI may change the way you work in 2025.

1. Movement from individual users to enterprise-wide adoption

Clearly, 2024 was the year that GenAI truly begun to be used by professional services workers in large numbers. For many, however, that usage was still on an individual level rather than done through wide scale rollouts within their organizations. For instance, 26% of respondents called themselves active users of publicly available GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, but only 12% said their organizations had integrated GenAI into the organization鈥檚 workflow at any sort of scale, according to the Generative AI in Professional Services Report, conducted by the 成人VR视频 Institute (TRI) in early-2024.

Today, organization-wide rollouts are beginning to become more commonplace, especially as business-oriented GenAI tools such as Microsoft Copilot begin to see more adoption. At the corporate level, 79% of respondents to a in October 2024, said that their companies were using Copilot, and half of respondents said their companies had deployed the technology to all users.

Special Report Perceptions, usage, and impact of GenAI on the future of work   View full report

Of course, some professional services sectors 鈥� such as law firms and tax & accounting firms 鈥� tend to be behind the pace of technology adoption seen in the wider corporate world. Even so, there are signs that enterprise-wide adoption of tools such as Copilot are rapidly increasing. For example, 43% of all corporate tax department respondents reported using GenAI, and business-oriented GenAI ranked as their most-used technology, favored even over publicly available tools such as ChatGPT and proprietary tax-specific tools, according to a forthcoming TRI survey.

2. More integrated training beyond just tools

At this point in 2024, only 19% of respondents to the Generative AI in Professional Services report had any sort of education or training around GenAI being provided by their own organizations. Naturally, over the past 12 months, many organizations have begun to roll-out those training programs in earnest.

At the same time, however, consternation remains around how GenAI training should be conducted. When asked in 成人VR视频鈥� Future of Professionals Report which potential negative consequences of AI worried most respondents, the number one fear cited for one-third of respondents was over-reliance on technology at the expense of professional skill development.

To combat this sort of over-reliance, professional services organizations are beginning to focus not just on training GenAI software itself, but also on how GenAI can be integrated into professional training programs at large. In fact, when senior-level respondents were asked in the survey what skills would be more in demand as a result of GenAI, the top answers were a host of soft skills: enthusiasm for new technology, adaptability to change, efficiency, and creativity.

With many organizations still building out what regular AI training should look like, expect those soft skills to take more of a prominent role than were present in initial GenAI training programs.

3. Tech鈥檚 adjustment in job roles makes an impact

Upon the initial introduction of GenAI, a number of professionals worried about their own job prospects. Those initial fears were not helped by figures such as what came out of Goldman Sachs, which estimated in April 2023 that 44% of all legal industry tasks could be automated by GenAI. (Goldman Sachs has since walked back some of those numbers after learning more about GenAI鈥檚 applications in professional work.)

In the time since, a common refrain has been less about whether GenAI will cost jobs, and more about the needed shift in what skills will be required and what new roles professional services organizations will be looking to fill. As we enter 2025, this shift has already begun to occur in earnest.

As noted in the just-published 2025 Report on the State of the US Legal Market, the composition of law firms is evolving, with a shift towards more experienced lateral hires, growth in two-tier partnership structures, and a reduction in junior associate hiring compared with previous years. For Midsize and larger law firms, just 40.2% of attorneys are associates; in 2009, that figure was 44.5%.

GenAI is poised to subsume a lot of the repeatable tasks currently delegated to law firm associates, which could force many law firms into a decision: Teach associates new skills that are more related to case strategy or have fewer associates. If early observations are any indication, the answer is likely a bit of both.

Notably, this trend isn鈥檛 limited to legal. The tax & accounting field also is poised to see the roles of its professionals change. In that forthcoming corporate tax technology survey, for example, 55% of respondents said they anticipate changing job roles as a result of technology within next 3 to 5 years, up from 41% who said that just last year.

4. Government and courts begin to use GenAI

One notable finding from the Generative AI Report in early 2024 was not whether courts and government agencies were using GenAI or not, but rather how many courts and government agencies either weren鈥檛 using or didn鈥檛 know about generative AI.

At the time, 60% of respondents in both categories said their organizations had no plans around GenAI. More than half were unsure whether they would ever use publicly available tools such as ChatGPT, let alone tools for more specific use cases. And only 14% of government agency respondents and 9% of court respondents said their organizations had any sort of policy governing the use of GenAI.

As a result, 2024 became a time for education and training for government and court personnel around proper GenAI use. And while these professionals tend to take a more cautious approach towards GenAI use, its use was not banned, according to the Future of Professionals Report. For instance, 30% of government respondents said their organization鈥檚 overall appetite for GenAI likely would hinder potential adoption; yet a greater portion (43%) said their organization鈥檚 desire for GenAI eventually would drive greater adoption.

We expect to see this adoption among courts and government agencies begin to occur to a greater extent in 2025, possibly driven by a need to do more with less, given potential government cutbacks by the Trump administration. Still, this growth could mirror the 2024 growth in legal, tax & accounting, and other professional services.

In addition, both courts and government agencies have cited talent recruitment as a top priority, according to Future of Professionals data, and GenAI could be seen as a way to help solve those capacity problems.

Conclusion

It’s worthwhile to remember that GenAI is still just a bit over two years old, and on the timeline of typical business technology adoption, its growth and impact have far outpaced any technology in recent memory. And there is no reason to believe the pace of change is slowing any time soon.

So, while it may seem like GenAI had an outsized influence on the conversation within many professional services industries, its influence will soon become undeniable 鈥� and many of those changes will begin in earnest over the next 12 months.

You can download the full 2025 Report on the State of the US Legal Market, here

According to a new report, that focus extends to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Indeed, corporate risk & fraud departments are ahead of other professional services such as legal and tax in embracing GenAI, according to the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report. Not only are corporate risk departments adopting GenAI at a higher rate and feel more positive sentiments towards its ultimate integration into the enterprise, they also are taking the lead in providing education and policy guidelines around GenAI use.

At the same time, their response towards GenAI is not an unconditional embrace of the technology, but rather an understanding that its use and implementation will need to be monitored. Risk & fraud respondents to the survey by and large said they understood that GenAI will undoubtedly have an impact on their daily workflows, but the technology needs to be implemented with care.

鈥淕enerative AI will be a game changer as the internet was,鈥� said one Australian corporate risk director. 鈥淭here are exciting possibilities as this is developed and will certainly change the way we work. Lots of potential gains and abuses of course.鈥�

Higher usage and positive opinions

Although GenAI has only been in the public consciousness for about a year and a half, corporate risk & fraud professionals have already begun investigating how the tool works 鈥� both for their own work, as well as how the technology could function for bad actors.

Nearly one-third (32%) of risk & fraud professionals said they have used public-facing GenAI tools such as ChatGPT 鈥� the highest rate of usage of any industry measured within the report. An additional 29% said they plan to use these tools within the next three years, while just 22% said they had no plans to use public GenAI tools. (The remainder said they were unsure).

Currently, adoption of GenAI tools specifically made for risk & fraud work is not as high, possibly due to these tools being more recent to the marketplace. Just 8% of corporate risk professionals said they currently use paid corporate risk software or online solutions that incorporate GenAI technology. However, this figure could also rapidly increase soon 鈥� an additional 14% said they plan to adopt these tools within the next year, while another 36% plan to do so within the next three years.

Further, respondents said they saw a variety of risk & fraud use cases for GenAI, with more than half of current GenAI users pointing to risk assessment and reporting; document review; document summarization; and knowledge management as the primary ways they are using the technology. A number of respondents also saw a number of industry-specific uses for GenAI tools.

鈥淢y job primarily looks for characteristics of bad actors in the payments industry,鈥� said one U.S. corporate risk manager. 鈥淚 believe we can train generative AI to weed these out much more efficiently than the current third-party software and manual processes that we currently utilize.鈥�

An Australian corporate risk analyst also explained that his team was excited by GenAI鈥檚 potential because 鈥渁s a forensic planner dealing with primary EOT (extension of time) claims worth millions of dollars in the mining and construction space, we have to review thousands of lines of schedules over generally long time periods to calculate the cause of delay.鈥�

For more of the impact of GenAI on professional services, you can download the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report听here.

Indeed, corporate risk respondents tended to exhibit more positive feelings about GenAI overall as well. When asked their primary sentiment towards the technology, 30% of corporate risk respondents said they were excited 鈥� a higher portion than any other industry and above the 21% overall average. Just 16% of corporate risk & fraud respondents, meanwhile, said they were concerned or fearful of the technology, slightly below the 18% average among all respondents.

Many corporate risk respondents said they had positive emotions due to the productivity gains that GenAI could potentially bring, especially around its ability to automate routine work. However, some said they expect GenAI to help with broader industry pain points, such as career development, as well.

鈥淚n an industry challenged with [a declining number of] professionals, we need to leverage technology to offset the losses and augment the creative workflows,鈥� said one US-based risk department executive.

The need for ethical use

Even with early enthusiasm for GenAI tools, however, corporate risk & fraud professionals indicated that these tools will only catch on within the profession if they are used responsibly and ethically.

While many respondents to the survey shared similar concerns to the wider professional services market around the technology itself 鈥� worries over accuracy, privacy, and security all sat near the top of GenAI concerns 鈥� corporate risk respondents in particular expressed societal concerns around GenAI usage. For example, 70% of corporate risk respondents said complying with relevant laws and regulations would be a barrier to adopting GenAI, a higher percentage than any other type of respondent. Meanwhile, 63% of risk respondents said another barrier would be ensuring that Gen AI tools are used ethically and responsibly, more concern on this than either corporate legal (60%) or corporate tax (49%) respondents. 鈥淭he industry has a lack of control mechanisms in place, and governments and large corporates have little or no understanding,鈥� said one Australian corporate risk director.

Another Canadian corporate risk executive director noted: 鈥淎s with anything internet-related, while there are positive elements which advance productivity, efficiency, etc., there are bad actors who will use it nefariously.鈥�

These concerns are perhaps why risk & fraud departments are taking education around GenAI more seriously than those in other professions, according to the survey. In fact, far more corporate risk respondents (38%) said their organizations are providing training and education around GenAI than any other type of professional surveyed, including corporate legal (25%) or corporate tax (10%) respondents.

鈥淗umans will likely always be required to verify,鈥� said one New Zealand investigator, adding that GenAI can minimize the level of human decisions required to create documents or risk profiles. 鈥淎I gives the opportunity to research controls, legal precedent, legislation, etc., which humans may miss with a manual search. This will naturally need to be sense-checked but provides the groundwork to start.鈥�

This focus also is reflected in the number of corporate risk professionals reporting that their organizations have enacted GenAI policies. More than one quarter (27%) of corporate risk professionals said their departments or organizations have a policy distinctly covering AI and data, while an additional 19% said GenAI was covered under a broader technology policy. For the general population of professionals, those figures were just 12% and 11%, respectively.

Today鈥檚 risk & fraud professionals are tackling risks that are only increasing in complexity, requiring more knowledge and technological competence than ever before. Ultimately, however, it鈥檚 clear from the high rate of GenAI adoption and focus on policies and training that corporate risk departments see a near future in which GenAI isn’t just helpful, it鈥檚 essential.

Professionals in service industries such as legal, tax & accounting, risk & fraud, and government operations have long adapted to new ways of working, at varying degrees and to differing extents. Upon ChatGPT鈥檚 initial public release in late-2022, however, GenAI and related technologies have promised a more disruptive potential. Indeed, GenAI offers the opportunity to create entirely new content, in plain language or easy-to-understand images, in a way that mimics human output in a fraction of the time.

To dig into the potential GenAI revolution and its impact on how professional service work is done, the 成人VR视频 Institute recently published its 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report. The survey was conduct online with 1,128 respondents in January and February 2024. Respondents were screened to ensure that they were familiar with GenAI technology and were located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Interestingly, the report found that while GenAI usage is currently not widespread, many professionals believe that GenAI can and should be used in the future 鈥� and many of their organizations are already making preparations for that reality.

The current state of GenAI

As the report shows, GenAI use is still in its nascent stages, with many more organizations exploring the technology than actively using it on a daily basis. About one-quarter of the report鈥檚 survey respondents said their organizations were already using GenAI or had active plans to use it, with usage higher among all legal and corporate risk & fraud respondents than for tax & accounting or government respondents.

Almost one-third of all respondents said their organizations were still considering whether or not to use GenAI. This could be one-off usage of public platforms such as ChatGPT, but increasingly, this also includes tools built specifically for industry use cases 鈥� such as legal research or drafting tools, or those that could spot accounting irregularities or aid in tax return preparation, risk assessment, and compliance reporting.

At the same time, the report shows that many service professionals are still figuring how to integrate GenAI into their daily work product and into their overall business plans as well, with no uniform answer among legal and tax professionals as to how they plan to approach GenAI costs and whether GenAI will cause their rates to raise.

Looking to the future

For all the questions currently surrounding GenAI, there is a growing feeling that its presence will continue to be felt for years, across all industries.

In fact, early sentiments skewed positively towards GenAI鈥檚 impact on professional services. A large portion of respondents (44%) said they were hopeful or excited about GenAI鈥檚 introduction into their industry, while more than one-third of respondents (35%) said they were hesitant, and 18% said they were concerned or fearful.

This sentiment is reflected in how many believe GenAI can and should be used for work in their respective industries. A large majority (81%) said GenAI can be applied to their work, while fewer (54%) said they believe GenAI should be applied to their work. These figures are slightly higher than the responses to a similar question asked of for legal and tax professionals in a previous survey done in Spring 2023.

Further, among those respondents who said they believe GenAI should be applied to their work, many focused particularly on the business impact of the technology. Tax industry respondents, for example, pointed to increasing efficiency and productivity, streamlining work processes, and improving quality and accuracy of work. Legal industry respondents, meanwhile, pointed to GenAI鈥檚 potential for cost savings, its ability to allow professionals to spend more time on high-value tasks, and its capacity to aid in quality control checks.

Overall, the 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report illustrates how the professional services market is reacting quickly to a potentially disruptive force in GenAI. Although its true impact may seem a proposition for far in the future, planning for its impact now is critical.

As our research shows, those proactive organizations that have already begun to explore how GenAI will change the future of their work will gain a distinctive advantage of those organizations without such inclination or planning.

You can download the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 recently published 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report here.