Lawyers in Britain believe that the profession’s use of AI should be self-regulated, the Law Society of England and Wales Gazette has reported.

A  Thomson Reuters study shows that almost half of British lawyers are in favour of self-regulation and against state intervention.

Only 36% of lawyers in British firms and 44% of British in-house lawyers say that the government should regulate their use of AI.

Trust

Kriti Sharma (chief product officer for legal tech at Thomson Reuters) said: “Regulation plays a critical role in instilling the trust needed to achieve widespread adoption of AI solutions.

"That said, it’s exciting to also see firms taking clear steps to self-regulate such as investing in AI skills training, and setting robust guidelines, so they can start harnessing its benefits now while also ensuring its safe use.”

The Thomson Reuters report shows that the top three barriers preventing lawyers from making more use of generative AI in their work are:

• The potential for inaccurate responses (74% of lawyers see this as a concern),
• Concerns about data security (68%),
• Complying with relevant laws and regulations (63%)

It also found that, of the lawyers who say their firms and departments are using generative AI, the most common uses of the technology are document review, legal research and document summarisation.