New Vable Research: 87% of Legal Professionals Use AI, but Only 52% Trust It to Deliver Value

State of AI Readiness in Legal 2026 finds a widening gap between AI adoption and AI readiness, even among the firms leading the charge

Vable, the current awareness platform for legal and professional services, today published its State of AI Readiness in Legal 2026 report. Based on a survey of 160 legal professionals across the US and UK, the report finds that AI adoption in law firms has significantly outpaced the governance and knowledge infrastructure needed to use it safely.

Key findings include:

• 87% of respondents are using or experimenting with AI, but only 52% are confident it delivers real value.
• 65.6% say their organization is not ready, or is not sure it is ready, to scale AI safely.
• 58.8% cite a client facing mistake caused by AI as their single biggest fear, ahead of regulatory breach and data security risk.
• 43% are not confident they know which AI tools their own lawyers are using day to day.

The report identifies a governance paradox at the top of the market. Knowledge and innovation leaders are far ahead on paper, with 85% reporting a formal AI governance framework compared to 44% across the broader market, a 41 point gap. But when asked whether their firm is actually ready to scale AI safely, that lead nearly disappears: 37% of knowledge and innovation leaders say yes, compared to 33% of the broader market.

"The tools are running. The confidence isn't," said Philippa, Lead Marketing Manager at Vable. "Firms that have invested the most in AI are barely more confident about scaling it than firms that haven't started. That tells us the problem was never the technology. It's the knowledge foundations underneath it."

The findings are relevant to two audiences that rarely read the same research: legal professionals relying on content and AI outputs, and knowledge and information teams responsible for the systems AI depends on. Vable argues the two are directly linked, since AI output is only as reliable as the knowledge infrastructure supporting it.

The full report, including methodology and breakdowns by firm size and region, is available now.

Media contact: Philippa McIntosh - philippa@vable.com - +44 (0)20 7422 0059