NEWS
Legal AI use is widespread in UK & I but integration challenges remain
Clio, a global leader in legal AI, has published its inaugural UK & Ireland Legal Insights Report 2026, revealing that AI has firmly entered the mainstream of legal practice across the region, but
that the profession now faces a more complex challenge: turning broad adoption into sustained value from intake to resolution.
Based on surveys of more than 500 legal professionals and 500 members of the public across the UK and Ireland, the report offers an authoritative view of how law firms and clients are experiencing legal services today. Legal practitioners shared views on technology use, AI governance, pricing, performance, workload and wellbeing. Members of the public discussed how they choose lawyers, what they value and how they feel about AI in legal services.
The report found that the legal industry in the UK and Ireland has reached a pivotal moment. The question is no longer whether to adopt legal AI; the question is how best to integrate it. While most firms are realising measurable gains in caseload growth, many risk falling behind their competitors as they struggle to reshape workflows and optimise integration. The report found four dynamics are shaping the legal landscape in this region right now.
“ The message from this research is clear: AI is no longer a differentiator in itself,” said Sarah Murphy, GM International at Clio.“ Rather, depth of integration is what separates high-performing firms from those leaving real value on the table.”
Managers‘ left to figure it out alone’ with major employment rights law changes
Managers across the UK are heading into one of the biggest workplace shake-ups in years, many without the support needed to make them work in practice, new polling from the Chartered Management Institute( CMI) suggests.
With key elements of the Employment Rights Act in place since April 6, overall awareness among managers is widespread, with more than three-quarters( 77 %) saying they are aware of at least one of the incoming reforms.
Yet behind that headline figure, the reality on the ground is far less prepared. Nearly half of managers( 48 %) say they have received no formal training or guidance from their organisation on the changes, leaving a significant proportion of the people responsible for delivering the reforms within workplaces to interpret them on their own.
Legal experts are warning about the gap, with leading UK law firm, Burges Salmon, pointing out that line managers have been‘ largely overlooked’ in preparations for the reforms, despite being central to reducing the legal risk they introduce.
While some managers feel somewhat able to navigate more familiar changes, such as Statutory Sick Pay reform, where two in five( 40 %) say they feel confident, with only 11 % describing themselves as very confident. Confidence drops sharply when it comes to more complex or newer areas of the law.
Around two-thirds of managers say they are not confident in advising on increased collective redundancy penalties( 65 %) and complying with the new Fair Work Agency( 65 %), two of the areas that most directly raise the stakes for employers.
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