IBA Puts Legal Sector on Notice: AI Won’t Wait for Lawyers to “Catch Up”

The International Bar Association (IBA) has launched the latest phase of its global impact survey on artificial intelligence, sending a clear signal to the legal community: the AI revolution is already underway, and law professionals can’t afford to lag. Open to legal practitioners worldwide until September 12, the survey aims to capture candid, real-world experiences of both the benefits and risks that AI brings to legal services, client interactions, and internal law firm operations. The findings will be unveiled at the high-profile IBA Annual Conference in Toronto this November, promising to shape international debate on regulation and best practice.

This second edition builds on sobering data from 2024, which found widespread support among lawyers for stricter and more consistent regulation of AI but also highlighted a persistent “readiness gap.” Despite near-universal agreement that AI will radically change the legal sector in the coming years, most firms admit they are unprepared, viewing AI as “next year’s problem” rather than today’s challenge.

The IBA’s survey is more than research; it’s a wake-up call. Currently, AI is rapidly automating routine legal work, raising urgent questions about legal ethics, oversight, and the training of professional skills. Yet industry inertia remains: legal professionals consistently underestimate AI’s short-term disruption even as external pressures mount. Law firms and bar associations should take note that the era of waiting to see is over, and those who ignore the transformative potential (and risk) of AI do so at their peril.