Nearly three-quarters of legal professionals think they know what content they can legally copy at work – but only 2% actually do, according to research published by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

CLA chief executive Simon Hutson said the findings, released on the first day of the Legal Geek conference, point to a ‘growing challenge for the legal sector as AI becomes integrated, including for activities such as research, document review and analysis’.

The CLA, which licenses organisations to copy and share extracts from books, journals, magazines and websites, surveyed 562 professionals working in the legal sector.

Seven in 10 legal professionals use generative AI at work and most said their managers encourage it. Nearly half of those using generative AI copied and pasted third-party material into AI prompts at least one a week. Nearly half of respondents uploaded documents containing third-party material to AI tools at least weekly.

The CLA estimates that less than 10% of law firms hold an appropriate copyright licence.

Seven in 10 agreed that using copyright-protected content to prompt or train generative AI without permission could put users at risk of infringement. A similar proportion thought it also put their organisations at risk.

Hutson said: ‘The legal profession understands better than most the importance of permissions, rights and managing risk. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in professional workflows, organisations need to make sure that their approach to copyright keeps pace with the technology.’