AI Adoption in Contract Review Doubles Year-Over-Year

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 12, 2025) — LegalOn Technologies, a global leader in legal AI, today released the 2026 State of AI for In-House Legal, an annual report that examines how AI is used today, where it’s delivering real impact and what in-house teams need to scale its use across everyday legal work. The findings show a decisive market shift: AI has gone mainstream, and legal teams are operationalizing it with clearer oversight and standards.  

In December 2025, LegalOn partnered with In-House Connect to survey 452 in-house legal professionals and found that the percentage of teams actively using AI in contract review has doubled year-over-year and nearly quadrupled since 2024. At the same time, resistance continues to shrink, with just 5% reporting they are not interested in adopting AI for contract review.

Once trust is established in contract review, AI adoption expands naturally into other legal workflows. Two-thirds of respondents see value in post-signature contract management and legal research (65%), and more than half identify benefits in matter management (58%) and knowledge management (54%).

“Legal AI has become common in-house, and the ROI is clear. Now, teams are deciding how to expand it across even more work,” said Daniel Lewis, Global CEO of LegalOn Technologies. “This report reinforces what we hear from our customers. Contract review is the gateway to legal AI adoption, and the next phase is using AI in more daily work, in contracting, counseling and beyond.”  

Other key findings from the survey include: 

• AI adoption is accelerating quickly: More than half (52%) of in-house legal teams are already using or evaluating AI for contract review, with active usage nearly quadrupling since 2024.
• Contract review remains the foundation: 87% of respondents say AI would benefit pre-signature contract review and redlining, especially as legal teams spend an average of 3.1 hours reviewing a single contract.‍
• Outcomes are measurable: 79% report reduced time spent on routine legal tasks, and 67% report faster business response and turnaround times.  ‍
• The market is preparing for agents: 80% have adopted, evaluated, or are learning about AI agents; 78% are comfortable delegating first-pass contract review to an agent under attorney supervision.    

Despite strong outcomes and growing adoption, the data shows that meaningful obstacles remain. The most commonly cited challenges—limited time and resources to implement AI (61%), concerns about data privacy and confidentiality (59%) and difficulty integrating with existing systems (51%)—are practical and signal a new phase of legal AI maturity, where success depends less on experimentation and more on operational readiness.

Legal AI adoption is real and accelerating. To learn more about the legal AI adoption trends of in-house legal teams, download the 2026 State of AI for In-House Legal.

About LegalOn Technologies

LegalOn is a global leader in AI for in-house legal teams, delivering the only integrated productivity platform for everyday legal work across contracting, counseling, and governance. Built on trusted legal knowledge and agentic AI aligned to organizational standards, LegalOn helps teams confidently grow, guide, and govern their business.

Trusted by 7,500+ organizations worldwide, LegalOn is backed by $200 million from leading investors, including Goldman Sachs and SoftBank. We serve customers across multiple industries and languages, with headquarters in San Francisco, California and Tokyo, Japan.

For more information, visit www.legalontech.com.

About In-House Connect

In-House Connect is a sponsor-supported free educational and networking platform for in-house legal that serves over 40,000 subscribers. In 2025, IHC's webinars and in-person events saw over 40,000 attendees. You can learn more about IHC's upcoming events at www.inhouseconnect.org/upcoming-events. 

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Media Contact‍

Eileen Policarpio | eileen.policarpio@legalontech.com

Shai Mehani | Shai@inhouseconnect.org 

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