New Delhi [India], June 2: Manupatra continues to be a pioneer in combining legal expertise with technology in India. Our close collaboration with law professionals and students allows us to stay informed on the evolving role of digital tools in legal practice.
Artificial intelligence has quickly become part of everyday life, influencing how people work and make decisions. In the legal profession, AI has shown promise in speeding up research, supporting drafting, and simplifying both case and contract management. However, its use has also raised concerns, such as incidents where fabricated legal content created by AI went unchecked.
To explore these developments, Manupatra initiated a first-of-its-kind, countrywide survey focused on understanding how AI is being adopted across India’s legal field. The survey aimed to capture real-world feedback, highlight existing gaps, and outline the next steps for using AI in a responsible, efficient, and ethical way. These insights serve as a guide for policymakers, legal professionals, and educators alike.
We are pleased to release our report, “Adoption of AI in the Indian Legal Landscape,” which reflects the experiences of 227 respondents—including students, practicing lawyers, in-house counsel, firm partners, academics, and members of the judiciary from across India.
Key Findings:
Younger Demographics Leading Engagement: 60% of participants were aged 18–34. Law students made up 36.6% of respondents, while 23.8% were advocates—indicating strong interest from early-career professionals.
Active AI Usage: Nearly 60% reported using AI tools in the past year, most commonly for legal research (77.9%), summarizing content (65.7%), and drafting assistance (54.7%).
Efficiency vs. Trust: While 79.7% noted time saved on repetitive tasks, just 4.1% said they fully trusted AI outputs. Another 48.8% emphasized the need for human verification before use.
Barriers to Effective Use: 58.1% cited inconsistent quality, 51.2% mentioned hallucinated or incorrect data, and 42.4% highlighted the absence of India-specific legal knowledge in current tools.
Policy Framework Lacking: Despite 77.1% supporting AI transparency in legal work, only 11% of firms surveyed had a formal policy addressing AI use.
Challenges Identified:
Output Reliability (58.14%): Many respondents flagged inaccurate or misleading content as a key issue.
Privacy & Confidentiality (47.67%): Concerns remain over data security and the risk of exposing sensitive legal information.
Insufficient Indian Context (42.44%): AI platforms often lack understanding of the intricacies of Indian laws and precedents.
Ethical and Legal Accountability (38.37%): Professionals expressed unease over bias, liability, and the ethics of relying on AI-generated material.
Skill and Awareness Gaps (40.12% & 34.30%): Limited training and low awareness of tools were noted as major barriers to adoption.
Future Trends and Sentiment:
Adoption Forecast: 35.68% believe AI will become standard in legal workflows within 1–2 years, while only 3.96% think full adoption will take more than five years.
Cautious Optimism: 46.25% have a mostly positive view of AI’s role in law, 18.06% consider it transformative, while 45.37% see both promise and risk.
Infrastructure Demands: Respondents emphasized the need for certified training (67.40%), trial access to tools (66.52%), and clear policy guidance from legal bodies (47.58%).
Human-Led Legal Workflows: The majority expect AI to support research and drafting, but agree that decision-making and legal interpretation should remain with humans.
About Manupatra:
Manupatra is India’s leading platform for legal, regulatory, and business information services. Since introducing online legal research to India in 2000, Manupatra has built the country’s most robust and intelligent legal research system. The platform combines AI and machine learning with legal expertise to serve lawyers, firms, corporates, judiciary, and students—making legal research smarter, faster, and more accessible.
