b"Local Government Lawyer 24Putting the future on holdPrivate practice is adopting artificial intelligence (AI) at speed, but is local government keeping up? Adam Carey considers the Legal Department of the Futures survey data on AI adoption in legal departments and looks at how lawyers can incorporate AI systems into their day-to-day work.Writing in his 2023 book, Future Lawyers,Table 1: Do you already - or are you planning to - use Artificial Intelligence in your department?Richard Suskind said most of the current claims being made by enthusiasts and pundits about the impact of AI on the law greatly61%overstate its likely short term impact.However, and more importantly, most of the current claims about the long-term greatly understate the impact of AI on legal service, he added. Susskind went on to predict that AI will most certainly transform the work of lawyers by 2030, and that the 2020s will be the decade during which artificial intelligence will take hold in law.18%Two years on, his prediction is starting to17%take shape in the working practices at private firms, with a LexisNexis report showing that 82% of UK lawyers in private firms and in- 5%house teams have adopted generative AI or have plans in motion to.But while the private sector is forgingYes, we already No, but we plan No, but we will No, I don't thinkahead, the picture in local government legaluse AI for legal to introduce AI likely deploy it at we will ever usedepartment is more complex.work. soon. some point in it in a meaningfulTwo new surveys conducted for the Legalfuture. way.Department of the Future supplement show that while interest in AI exists, actual adoption"