In-house legal teams are at a turning point with AI. While still early, the focus is shifting from experimentation to how AI can be evaluated, governed, and scaled safely across everyday legal work.

The shift is already visible in the data, with active AI usage in contract review accelerating year over year.

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In The 2026 State of AI for In-House Legal, LegalOn and In-House Connect surveyed 452 in-house legal professionals to uncover how AI is being used today, where it’s delivering real impact, and what legal teams need to operationalize AI across everyday legal work.

• AI adoption is accelerating: 52% of in-house legal teams are already using or evaluating AI for contract review, with active usage nearly quadrupling since 2024.
• Contract review anchors AI adoption: 87% say AI would benefit contract review and redlining, especially as legal teams spend an average of 3.1 hours reviewing a single contract.
• Real outcomes are emerging: 79% report reduced time spent on routine legal tasks and 67% say AI helps them respond faster to the business.
• Agents are next—but with guardrails: 80% of legal teams are exploring or evaluating AI agents, yet they overwhelmingly prefer supervised, human-in-the-loop automation.

The report shows that AI is already helping in-house legal teams save time and respond faster—but scaling it requires the right tools, workflows, and guardrails.

For in-house counsel and legal operations leaders, it shows where AI is being used today, what’s slowing broader rollout, and what’s needed to use it consistently and responsibly.

Get the full findings in the complete report.