Login | January 02, 2026
ABA report finds AI is rapidly impacting the legal profession
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal Tech News
Published: January 2, 2026
Once the subject of debate, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly being integrated into the legal profession, impacting the way many tasks are carried out.
In fact, as attorney and journalist Bob Ambrogi discusses in a Dec. 16 post on LawSites (https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/aba-task-force-ai-has-moved-from-experiment-to-infrastructure-for-the-legal-profession.html) a new report by the American Bar Association Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence finds AI adoption has accelerated dramatically over the past year, putting the onus on legal professionals to develop new ethical guidelines, governance models and skill sets.
Titled “Addressing the Legal Challenges of AI--Year 2 Report on the Impact of AI on the Practice of Law,” it includes sections on its implications for the rule of law, law practice, the courts, access to justice, legal education, governance, risk management and ethics.
“AI is no longer an abstract concept,” said ABA Immediate Past President William R. Bay in the report’s introduction. “AI has become key to reshaping the way we practice, serve our clients, and safeguard the rule of law.”
Ambrogi says one of the most striking findings is how quickly the profession’s attitudes toward generative AI have evolved, pointing out that just a year ago the debate centered around whether to use it at all versus today’s discussions on how it should be utilized and governed.
According to the task force, while early adoption focused on low-risk functions such as drafting routine communications, more advanced tools are emerging, driving up costs and creating shortages in technical expertise that could increase the widening gap between technology “haves” and “have-nots.”
The report also zeroes in on the judiciary’s implementation of the technology, which Ambrogi says is both improving efficiency and creating major new risks such as AI-generated disinformation and deepfakes.
“Judges are increasingly confronting questions about how to authenticate evidence, how to respond to claims that legitimate evidence is fabricated, and whether existing rules of evidence are adequate for AI-generated material,” says Ambrogi.
While the task force finds generative AI is beginning to demonstrate the potential to expand access to justice by increasing the productivity of legal aid organizations and providing understandable information to self-represented litigants, it cautions that if these nonprofits are priced out, low-income individuals may find it even more difficult to secure services.
Additionally, the report concludes AI governance is becoming a key responsibility for lawyers and explores questions about who will be held liable should AI-driven decisions cause harm.
This is the final report by the task force, which was convened by the ABA to complete a two-year project that explored the growing impact of AI on the legal profession.