Relativity and IDC study: AI has not changed hiring for most legal professionals

AI is now standard in legal work but has not yet changed hiring or billing for most firms, according to a study by legal data company Relativity with research from IDC, described in a press release. It draws on 700 legal professionals in 20 countries, surveyed between April and October 2026.

57.9% of respondents said AI has had no impact on their hiring, and more said they had increased hiring (24.2%) than reduced it (9.2%). The billable hour is still the most common billing method (32.5%), ahead of task-based billing (22.3%). 82.8% said AI has saved their organisation money.

Adoption is near universal: 80.5% of legal professionals and more than 91% of chief legal officers use AI, and 93% have increased their use. Judges are slower. In a separate Relativity survey with the National Association of Women Judges, 16.6% of judges said they never use AI and a third use it rarely, and about one in five federal and state judges bar court staff from using it. "When adoption ceilings sit above 90.0%, using AI stops being a differentiator and starts being a floor," said Ryan O'Leary of IDC.