Of Canadian legal professionals polled, 23 percent said AI saved firms a significant amount of time
According to LEAP Legal Software’s “Profitability in Law: Global Report 2026,” Canadian law firms are more swiftly adopting emerging technologies than their peers and demonstrating strong confidence in the impacts of legal-specific artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and tools.
“Canada's legal sector is entering a productivity phase,” said Malcolm Muthulingum, chief executive officer of LEAP Legal Software Canada, in a news release. “Firms are ready for change, and they're confident about their potential for growth--but in order to scale efficiently they must evaluate and optimize their technology stacks.”
LEAP’s research revealed that, among Canadian legal professionals surveyed:
- 70 percent considered profitability a high or top priority in business decision-making
- 68 percent saw their firms’ profitability go up in the last 12 months
- 45 percent said their firms had high potential for profitability
Pros of AI
“Canadian legal professionals are already seeing the benefits that come from adopting AI, and pairing it with their legal expertise,” Muthulingum said in LEAP’s news release.
According to the global report, of Canadian legal professionals polled:
- 75 percent reported that AI saved their firms a moderate to significant amount of time
- 23 percent said AI saved a significant amount of time, the highest worldwide
- 43 percent believed legal-specific AI had the most impact
Among Canadian respondents, 71 percent used more than three platforms per day, with 40 percent identifying consolidation into a single platform as their firms’ best potential investment to boost profitability.
LEAP explained that platform fragmentation could affect workflows, slow down processes, and increase training demands, thus offsetting the benefits of investing in emerging technologies.
Pressures facing firms
LEAP’s global report described administrative workload as a significant challenge to profitability. Among those surveyed in Canada:
- For administrative tasks, 32 percent spent between two and five billable hours each day
- 42 percent devoted over two hours every day
- 10 percent lost more than five hours per day
Canadian legal professionals responding to the survey identified the following barriers to profitability:
- inadequate AI tools to seek opportunities or automate outreach (50 percent)
- efficiency blockers, including excessive administrative work (43 percent)
- revenue blockers, such as pricing pressures (43 percent)
- limited customer relationship management or client management systems (42 percent)
- insufficient AI for document review or research (38 percent)
- too many systems (37 percent)
Canadians polled also identified the following challenges:
- burnout (52 percent)
- knowledge retention (50 percent)
- staff turnover (48 percent)
LEAP added that 40 percent of Canadian respondents said their firms had limited or no documented processes in place when losing staff, which could lead to training, consistency, and service delivery gaps.
Implications for legal sector
In its news release, LEAP emphasized that its research suggested that profitability within the legal sector would depend on law firms’ ability to manage productivity, technology, and knowledge, rather than on demand alone.
LEAP shared that firms worldwide have increasingly recognized the importance of AI to improving productivity and profitability. According to LEAP, while firms have been optimistic about their growth potential, structural pressures are affecting profitability.
The global report showed that AI adoption has remained uneven across markets, practice areas, and firm sizes, suggesting a widening performance divide and unequal distribution of the technology’s benefits across the legal profession.
“What's critical now, is for the firms that have not yet considered implementing AI into their practices to seriously evaluate their options, as failing to incorporate this technology better positions their competitors to protect margins, manage workload, and deliver consistent service,” Muthulingum said.
LEAP’s recent report drew on findings from a survey of 700 legal professionals across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, and Ireland.
