GCs Want to Tap Into AI But Lack Roadmap, Report Shows

General counsel are eager to tap the promise of generative AI. But without clear technology road maps, many legal departments are struggling to turn that interest into action.
That’s the central tension revealed in the newly released Part 2 of The General Counsel Report 2025, produced by advisory firm FTI Consulting and legal technology company Relativity. The report finds that while enthusiasm for legal tech — especially generative AI — is steadily rising, 75% of legal departments still don’t have a plan in place to guide adoption.
This mismatch between curiosity and readiness comes at a time when legal teams are under serious pressure — demand is up, legal risk is growing, and contracting workloads are ballooning. In the current environment, technology — especially automation and AI — is seen as one of the most promising ways to boost capacity.
But planning remains a sticking point. “It is a personal pain point because there is so much we can do, but when we spend most of the day on substantive legal work, the technology road map suffers from a lack of attention,” one general counsel said in the report.
And yet, the appetite for generative AI is clear. According to the survey, 44% of general counsel say their departments are already using generative AI in some form — up from just 28% in 2024. Usage ranges from contract analysis and document review to legal research and compliance-related tasks. About 30% of departments planning new tech investments this year say generative AI is on the list.
The survey included responses from over 200 in-house legal leaders spanning various industries in the United States, the United Kingdom, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
FTI and Relativity released Part 1 of the report in February. It explored the explosion in the amount of data companies are handling and the risks associated with managing it.
Sophie Ross, global CEO of FTI Technology, said while a growing number of general counsel are exploring how AI can make their teams more efficient and effective, the "increasing comfort level must be balanced against an assortment of persistent concerns, including the technology’s viability, availability, reliability and cost.”
That balance is still a work in progress. The majority of AI use today is limited to pilots, experiments, or informal individual usage of tools like ChatGPT. Most legal leaders remain cautious, especially when it comes to high-risk areas like investigations. Only 12% of legal departments not currently using generative AI plan to adopt it in the next year.
Some general counsel point to quality concerns. “My top concern is inaccurate or inconsistent results, so you cannot allow AI to work without oversight,” one GC said. “Therefore, you will always need humans to work with the AI tools.”
Another commented, “We are more concerned about the practical effect of its usage than the philosophical concerns about the future of it.”
Still, comfort is increasing — particularly in lower-risk use cases. Legal leaders are most open to using AI in document review, e-discovery, legal research and contract review. Some departments have already created internal proprietary tools, while others rely on enterprise platforms used company-wide.
Yet despite these examples, few departments feel truly prepared. The report shows a modest improvement in perceived readiness: 85% of general counsel say they feel minimally or not at all prepared to manage the risks of generative AI, down from 93% the previous year. But in interviews, many noted that the pace of change in AI leaves them feeling perpetually behind.
The gap isn’t just about technology — it’s also about people. The report found that 71% of legal departments still don’t have a dedicated legal operations leader, even as contracting work and tech evaluation responsibilities continue to grow.
One GC put it bluntly: “I wish we had a legal operations function. I feel like there is more we could do to engage with outside counsel to counter their fee increases and increase our efficiency.” Others described operations support as “mission critical” and a “full-time role of high importance.”
Without operations leadership and a road map, some legal departments may struggle to align their ambitions with execution. And yet, the demand for smarter, faster, more scalable legal work isn’t going away.
David Horrigan, discovery counsel and legal education director at Relativity, said the report's findings confirm that "generative AI is not a flash-in-the-pan fad, but rather a fundamentally transformative technology that is reshaping the practice of law.”