C-suites’ regular use of AI for work tasks misaligns legal and tax teams

Zach Warren

Manager for Enterprise Content for Technology & Innovation at Thomson Reuters Institute

The Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report 2024 predicts that AI is a game-changer, with 78% of the professional services respondents stating that it will have either a transformational or high impact on their roles. Despite the consensus that AI is broadly a force for good, its adoption rate varies dramatically across legal and tax departments, as well as C-suites. Specifically, C-suites are using AI to start tasks more often, creating a challenge for legal and tax departments to keep up and ensure business continuity.

Legal and tax teams are broadly more hesitant to integrate AI into day-to-day operations for reasons like security or accuracy concerns — or simply not knowing where to begin. Yet, the more customer-focused C-suites are moving into the era of AI with a focus on pleasing their clients.

Let’s explore the results of the report and what they mean for each of these groups.

Different attitudes, different adoption rates

AI’s design enables people to use it for multiple purposes. For many, its value lies in getting work off the ground.

The report found that a staggering 82% of C-suite respondents used AI to start work at least once, with 24% using it regularly.

This statistic quite drastically strays from what legal and tax professionals said, showing how they view AI’s value at least somewhat differently. Only around 60% of both groups have used AI to start work at least once, compared to 82% for C-suites, with 10% using it regularly versus 24% for C-suites.

Percentage using AI as a starting point for a task at work

	Once or Twice	Several Times	Use Regularly	Do not Use
C-Suite	22%	36%	24%	18%
Legal	31%	19%	10%	40%
Tax & Trade	30%	21%	10%	40%

Why the drastic drop in adoption? For legal professionals, it comes down to avoiding risk. Almost half are concerned about inaccuracies, and over one-third worry about data security and the ethics of AI use. While sharing similar concerns, tax professionals don’t have the time or capacity to explore the tools — 36% aren’t sure what kind of work they can use AI for, and a similar number said they haven’t had a chance yet.

Meanwhile, 74% of C-suite respondents who have used AI considered it a strong starting point, and another 14% said AI gave them an output stronger than they could’ve produced themselves.

[Yes] Strength of output

What’s causing this disparity?

Given the possible inefficiencies of working with teams that do not share your work approach, it’s important to understand why there is a discrepancy between these groups.

Knowing this can help raise awareness of the issue, which is the first step to overcoming it. According to a survey of C-suite executives we took last fall, respondents thought they were on the same page as legal and tax departments regarding AI, but they actually had entirely different priorities.

C-suites focus chiefly on customers and talent, followed by operations and financial growth, and then safeguarding the business.

Legal professionals prioritized safeguarding over customers and talent, while tax professionals viewed operations as their North Star.

These results suggest that legal and tax departments’ concern for internal matters holds them back from using a tool with the potential for long-term growth. Meanwhile, C-suites are happy to take on the risks of AI if it creates happier customers and greater business success.

Embracing change

Ultimately, legal and tax professionals work to serve their clients’ best interests. How they go about this will vary, but the clients’ priorities will always remain the same, and AI is only becoming a more effective — and increasingly adopted — tool to meet their needs.

That isn’t to say legal professionals should throw caution to the wind or that tax professionals should sideline vital work to experiment with AI. Instead, these teams need to create a strategy to embrace these technologies safely and efficiently. Doing so will help them align with modern business practices so the future doesn’t leave them behind.

To explore other insights on how to approach AI or to find out how to devise such a strategy, get in touch with us below.