Secretariat is pleased to sponsor the 2026 ACEDS Artificial Intelligence Survey, now in its second year. This annual survey examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is being used across modern legal workflows as the industry moves beyond experimentation and into full operational adoption.

How is AI being used across your workflows today? What challenges or opportunities have emerged as adoption has expanded? We invite you to share your experience with its use in legal practice. Join the conversation as we uncover practical, real-world insights.

As AI becomes embedded across legal workflows, accountability and defensibility have taken on new importance. The 2026 survey focuses on how legal teams are deploying AI in real-world environments, how those tools are governed, and where challenges continue to limit effectiveness. As AI-generated work product increasingly appears in high-stakes matters, accuracy, defensibility, transparency, and accountability have become critical priorities.

Key Trends Shaping AI in Legal Practice in 2026

This year’s survey explores several developments shaping AI adoption across the legal industry, including:

• AI is operational, not experimental.
  Legal teams are embedding AI into existing platforms and workflows, making governance, integration, and output quality more important than tool selection.
• Defensibility now outweighs speed.
  Accuracy, privilege protection, auditability, and transparency are driving decisions as AI-generated work product increasingly appears in high-stakes matters.
• Education gaps are more visible—and riskier.
  Uneven understanding of AI across attorneys, legal ops, and eDiscovery teams continues to impact adoption quality and risk exposure.
• eDiscovery expertise is expanding beyond review.
  AI is pushing eDiscovery professionals into broader roles across investigations, analytics, and information governance, when organizations allow it.
• Clients are asking harder questions about AI.
  Clients now expect clear answers on how AI is used, governed, disclosed, and validated, raising the bar for transparency and policy alignment.

Why Participate in the 2026 AI Survey

Your participation ensures the survey reflects real-world experience, not marketing claims or theoretical use cases. Whether your organization is actively deploying AI, cautiously evaluating its use, or developing internal policies and governance frameworks, your insights help establish a credible industry benchmark.

The survey takes only a few minutes to complete, and the findings will help inform legal decision-making, technology investment, and best practices across the global legal community.

Thank you for contributing to the 2026 ACEDS Artificial Intelligence Survey.

To read the Secretariat and ACEDS 2025 Artificial Intelligence Report, click here.