Artificial intelligence on the rise, usage profiles influenced by age

Artificial intelligence is not the future but is already the present of the legal profession in Milan. In one year, the percentage of lawyers who are habitual users of cognitive extension has jumped from 32.9% to 54.5%, a figure that touches ¾ of the under-35 universe (74.4%) and 70% of firms with more than ten professionals.

The research carried out in collaboration between the local Bar Association and Il Sole 24 Ore, and which is being presented on Tuesday 20 May as part of the Milan Bar Association's Talk to the future week, provides plenty of food for thought and some cause for concern, among lawyers themselves, about the governance of a disruptive technology (no less, however, than the first digital revolution 30 years ago: the internet).

Counterintuitively, there is not much generational difference in the approach to Ai. For example on the issue of economic impact (for 80% this is significant) and the need to develop specific skills for using the systems. Even for the daily use of Ai, the four age groups identified in the research are all above 50% of the sample.

Where, on the other hand, trends are more pronounced according to age is in the declination of the use of Ai: here the differences are appreciable in the under 35 - four out of five use it to do synthesis of texts, a percentage that gradually falls to 42% of the over 55s. Opposite trend instead for jurisprudential research, which rises with age to 47% (it is half in the young). Ai's support for the drafting of a legal act is still low for everyone (between 10 and 15% according to age).

Artificial intelligence, however, influences legal research and case preparation for 72.9 per cent of the target audience (in 2024 it was 66.6 per cent), with a peak influence of 79.8 per cent for the 55-plus age group.