An academic study credited with wiping a trillion dollars from the value of artificial intelligence stocks this week suggests lawyers are embracing the technology at a personal level - but with little effect on their firm's bottom line. The report*, released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's NANDA initiative, reveals that, while most organisations are piloting generative AI, 95% of those projects are achieving zero return. 

The report attributes the 'GenAI Divide' to the fact that AI tools do not learn from experience and integrate poorly with existing workflows. Few businesses have so far been transformed by AI and few human workers displaced. While employees have enthusiastically tried out personal tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot, 'enterprise-grade systems... are being quietly rejected'.

Technology shares in New York fell sharply following the report's publication amid predictions of a bursting 'AI bubble'. 

However the report shows that AI's impact varies sharply by industry. Of the seven sectors covered by the report, professional services comes second only to 'media & telecom' in the extent of disruption attributed to generative AI. Bottom of the table is energy and materials, which has 'near-zero adoption' and 'minimal experimentation'. 

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Overall, the report suggests that AI is already transforming work, but not through official channels. 'Our research uncovered a thriving "shadow AI economy" where employees use personal ChatGPT accounts, Claude subscriptions and other consumer tools to automate significant portions of their jobs, often without IT knowledge or approval,' it states. Such use enables 'subtle efficiencies' such as fewer compliance violations, but which are hard to quantify. 

The report quotes a corporate lawyer at a mid-sized enterprise as preferring a $20 per month consumer AI product to the $50,000 specialised contract analysis tool installed by her organisation. 

To close the GenAI Divide, the report suggests focusing on 'narrow but high-value use-cases' integrated into existing workflows. 'Organisations that cross the GenAI Divide discover that return on investment is often highest in ignored functions like operations and finance,' it concludes. 

Research by the LawtechUK initiative suggests 82% of UK lawyers are using or planning to use AI tools, and 78% of large firms already implementing the technology. 

 

*The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, MIT NANDA