In the legal and accounting sectors, the era of artificial intelligence as a speculative experiment has ended. According to recent data, 72 percent of professionals in these fields have already integrated AI into their daily workflows, a figure that rises to 81 percent when including those who intend to adopt the technology shortly. What was once the domain of a few tech-forward pioneers has become a baseline utility for the rank and file.
However, this rapid adoption has created a significant governance gap. Among those using AI, 51 percent admit to doing so without any formal institutional safeguards or oversight. This "shadow AI" usage suggests that individual practitioners are prioritizing efficiency and output over the slower-moving risk assessments of their organizations. In fields defined by precision and confidentiality, the lack of centralized guardrails presents a unique set of liabilities.
This bottom-up surge in usage reflects a broader trend across professional services: the tools are evolving faster than the policies meant to contain them. As lawyers and accountants turn to large language models to draft documents or analyze data, management teams are finding themselves in a reactive posture, attempting to retroactively apply ethics and security standards to a practice that is already entrenched in the office culture.
With reporting from Usine Digitale.
Source · Usine Digitale
