July 23, 2026
The 2026 Artificial Intelligence Report, conducted by Secretariat in collaboration with ACEDS, reveals AI has reached near universal adoption across the legal industry. No longer is the question whether AI is being used, but rather which AI technologies are being used, how they are being integrated into everyday legal workflows, and what risks must be addressed to ensure use is accurate, defensible, and aligned with professional and ethical responsibilities.
Now in Secretariat’s second year sponsoring the study alongside ACEDS, the survey highlights an industry moving rapidly from experimentation to operational adoption. GenAI has become an increasingly common part of legal practice, with respondents reporting growing use across document drafting, web search, legal research, document review, eDiscovery, and other core legal activities.
The findings also underscore that accelerated adoption brings both rewards and risks. As organizations realize gains in speed, efficiency, and capacity, they are also navigating growing concerns around privacy, confidentiality, trustworthiness, and defensibility.
The report examines key areas of AI use in legal practice, including:
Managing Director Richard Finkelman notes, “We are seeing a clear acceleration in the adoption of commercial GenAI tools within traditional eDiscovery workflows, with these technologies now being actively used across core discovery processes. At the same time, recent cases are bringing the risks into sharper focus, particularly around hallucinations and data privacy. Expert discovery is now the next frontier and while adoption today remains nascent, we expect it to shift rapidly toward more mainstream use over the next 12 months.”
The 2026 Secretariat and ACEDS Artificial Intelligence Report surveyed professionals from across the legal industry, including law firms, corporations, government agencies, service providers, independent consultancies, and eDiscovery professionals. The results reflect a broad cross-section of organizations and provide insight into how AI is transforming legal practice.
While adoption continues to accelerate, organizations remain measured in their approach. The survey found that 59% of respondents characterize their organization’s approach to AI as cautious, down slightly from the prior year. At the same time, data privacy and confidentiality remain the leading barriers to adoption, while concerns about hallucinations increased significantly year-over-year. These findings highlight the importance of governance, education, and human oversight as organizations expand their use of AI technologies.
The findings suggest the legal industry has entered a new phase of AI maturity, where the focus is shifting from whether to use AI to how it can be deployed responsibly, effectively, and defensibly.
The report also introduces a new section on AI use in expert discovery, highlighting an area still in the early stages of adoption: 17% of firms are using AI with expert witnesses and 45% are evaluating its use.
The 2026 Secretariat and ACEDS Artificial Intelligence Report provides legal professionals and organizations with valuable insight into the opportunities, risks, and future direction of AI in legal practice.
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