AI Is the Baseline Now. What Actually Differentiates LegalTech Now?

AI is the baseline now

Ninety-two per cent of legal professionals use at least one AI tool, according to Wolters Kluwer's 2026 Future Ready Lawyer report.[1] The report calls AI a baseline tool for the profession, in use across law firms, corporate legal departments and business consulting practices.[1]

Treat the exact figure with some care. Wolters Kluwer surveyed 810 lawyers in the US, China and eight European countries.[1] Progress surveyed 304 US lawyers and landed on 85%.[3] Different samples and different questions, but the same message: most lawyers are already using AI.

That changes what a product claim is worth. When most of the market has AI, "we have AI" tells a buyer very little. The more useful question is what happens around it.

The problem has moved from adoption to implementation

Consilio's 2026 Global Survey puts numbers on the shift. For the first time in six years, technology strategy has overtaken workload volume as legal's top strategic challenge.[2]