A report on the AI in the legal industry finds that contract management has emerged as the area legal professionals believe will be most transformed by artificial intelligence.
The study, released this week by contract lifecycle management platform SpotDraft, reports that 70.8% of respondents expect significant AI-driven transformation in contract management over the next three years, with clause identification and analysis (74%) topping the list of desired improvements.
“The data is clear—contract management is where AI is delivering the most immediate value for legal teams,” said Akshay Verma, COO of SpotDraft, of the 2025 AI Impact Report. “As teams integrate AI consistently, contracts transform from administrative burdens into strategic assets. The teams gaining the most aren’t just automating reviews—they’re unlocking business intelligence previously trapped in contract language and shifting their focus from document management to strategic decision-making.”
Beyond clause analysis, legal teams are looking for AI to enhance contract drafting and template generation (65.3%), provide real-time alerts for key dates (56.7%), improve repository management (52.7%) and offer better negotiation support (52%).
Findings:
-
- Usage frequency drives productivity: Among daily AI users, 91% report productivity increases, with 29% experiencing significant increases. In contrast, only 59% of monthly users report improvements, suggesting consistent engagement is essential to realizing AI’s benefits.
- Experience reduces ethical concerns: Legal professionals with hands-on AI experience express fewer significant ethical concerns than those who rarely use these technologies, challenging assumptions that deeper exposure heightens ethical anxieties.
- AI usage not displacing legal roles: Despite widespread fears about job displacement, 73.5% of organizations report no changes to roles or staffing due to AI implementation, with many teams growing alongside AI adoption.
- Essential skills are evolving: Strategic thinking (30.5%), advanced legal knowledge (20.6%), and understanding AI tools (26.2%) emerge as the most critical skills for future legal professionals, signaling a shift in talent requirements.
For most legal teams, AI saves between one and five hours per week (41% of respondents). The report suggests that realizing greater benefits requires more consistent usage, better integration with existing systems, and more precise ROI measurement.
Based on the report findings, SpotDraft recommends legal teams start with high-volume, low-risk contract use cases where AI can demonstrate quick wins, implement AI in phases to build confidence, focus on productivity gains before cost savings and create feedback loops between users and implementation teams.
“We see AI as a way to let lawyers be lawyers again,” said Tommie Tavares-Ferreira, Head of Legal Operations at Cedar. “By handling the routine work, it frees teams to focus on the strategic advice that actually requires human judgment.”
The 2025 AI Impact Report is based on comprehensive survey data collected from 192 legal professionals, primarily from North America. The study was conducted in partnership with In-House Connect and reached legal decision-makers in organizations of all sizes across multiple industries.
