Anna Thomas MBE co-founded the Institute for the Future of Work in 2018 after initiating and running the Future of Work Commission 2016-17 co-chaired by Helen Mountfield KC and Lord Tom Watson. Before this, she worked as a barrister specialising in employment and equality law at Devereux Chambers. Anna’s MBE was awarded in 2024 for research into the future of work.
AI is reshaping legal work right now, but we still know surprisingly little about what that change looks like on the ground. For the legal profession, built on expertise, accountability and public trust, understanding these changes is critical.
The use of AI in the legal sector has attracted plenty of attention, but very little of it tells us what is happening inside chambers and firms. A survey by LexisNexis found that 43% of barristers currently use AI for legal work purposes. Meanwhile, the Bar Council’s former Chair, Barbara Mills KC, described the growth of AI tools as ‘inevitable’ and ‘fast-paced’. When AI changes work in the legal sector, the implications go beyond productivity metrics: they touch the law’s role as a bedrock of our society and democracy.
Recent case law shows what is at stake. In Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey, fabricated authorities were put before the court, leading the Divisional Court to warn of AI misuse having serious implications for the administration of justice.
The Bar Council's guidance on generative AI reinforces the same principle: barristers remain responsible for their work. A hallucinated authority is not a technical glitch. It can trigger disciplinary proceedings and corrode public trust in justice.
This is why the profession must protect agency over how this transformation plays out and retain control over the use and governance of AI; about where, how, and under whose discretion and authority AI is deployed.
The future of legal work
Protecting workers’ agency in an era of technological change was one of the reasons I co-founded the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW). As an independent research and development institute, our mission is to explore the impacts of new technology on work and ensure technology design, development and deployment support good work and a flourishing society. This includes updated or new mechanisms for accountability and governance.
The legal profession is an important setting in which to ask these questions due to its foundational role in society and rapid technological change. As a result, IFOW has built evidence on the legal profession: surveying legal firms on their AI adoption for the Mayor of London’s AI & Jobs Taskforce; conducting an in-depth case study of AI governance at a legal firm with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and partnering with the Bar Council on ongoing research into the experiences of legal professionals including through a bespoke survey that draws from our latest work.
Beyond automation: AI’s transformation of legal work
Whilst knowledge gaps on AI’s transformation of the legal profession remain, our research has surfaced several things.
First, there is no singular trajectory of AI adoption across the profession, varying from incremental use of third-party tools for research and document review through to AI embedded in core processes, such as pricing.
Second, not all use is visible. We found widespread concern about "shadow AI", tools used outside formal governance, with risks for a profession that represents accountability and compliance, trust and confidentiality.
Third, changes go beyond doing tasks faster. Specialist legal expertise remains critical but is increasingly combined with new tasks, skills and capabilities, such as data literacy and ethics, and the judgement to interpret and validate AI outputs.
These choices, about which tasks are automated, which skills are developed and where human agency is protected, make up what IFOW calls good work design, developed through our research with the CIPD.
Designing AI around good work in the legal sector
The future of the legal profession should not be set by technology providers. Individual practitioners, chambers and firms must make deliberate choices about where AI should – and should not – be used to actively shape the future of work, law and the profession.
This is where good work design can help: it involves moving from purely technical gains toward the human dimensions of transformation. Good work design means redesigning bundles of tasks and skills, governance and responsibilities, and learning and development. In practice, it also means the organisational context of chambers or firms, such as a clear AI policy, peer learning or training investment.
Rapidly shifting to AI-first solutions may lead to short-term efficiency savings but undermines trust and financial sustainability in the long term. A good work design approach creates opportunity and improves job quality while ensuring efficiency gains do not come at the expense of professional judgement, authority or everyday experience of work.
At this critical juncture, AI is transforming a profession integral to the foundations of our society
To develop best practice and the tools that support human agency, we cannot rely solely on technology providers. If the profession is to shape what comes next rather than have it decided elsewhere, we need first-hand evidence from the people experiencing these changes.
You can contribute by completing IFOW's short survey on AI use in legal work, supported by the Bar Council.