// wiki · research review · September 2026

AI in legal departments: findings of the Deloitte UK and RSGI study

A diff.legal material based on the Deloitte UK and RSGI report “The AI Imperative: Reshaping of the Legal Industry” (June 2026): a survey of 121 legal-function leaders and interviews with law firms. This is an editorial summary; for exact wording, refer to the original source.

Adoption dynamics

Over two years the structure has changed radically: in 2024, 76% of the legal functions surveyed had not adopted AI at all; by mid-2026 only 2% remained. 61% of respondents are in deployment phases, and a further 10% have fully embedded AI into their work.

Budgets

79% of legal functions have increased AI spending; the average increase is 67% year on year. Investment has ceased to be experimental: AI is entering the regular budgets of legal departments.

The gap between expectations and maturity

Respondents expect to automate 28% of legal work within 2–3 years, but only 21% report mature governance of AI agents. Expectations are running ahead of organisational readiness: without usage rules, quality control and data protection, adoption creates risks rather than savings — which is consistent with Russian court practice treating the transfer of data to public AI services as disclosure of a secret (court practice review).

People and roles

The report stresses the importance of AI literacy and adaptability among lawyers and highlights the growing role of the legal engineer — a specialist who connects legal work with tool configuration. For corporate legal functions this means that AI adoption is not only a question of licences but also of policies, training and quality control of results.

The connection with the work of diff.legal

Rules on the team's use of AI, contracts with AI vendors and preparing rights for investment are part of the services of continuous support and product rights and risks. Your team's documents can be discussed after an enquiry.