We have waited a long time for certain technological advances that have been promised to us. Where are our flying cars? Our seamless virtual reality? The condos on Venus?
Given the relentless hype, some may feel that artificial intelligence (AI) has yet to deliver on the game-changing effects its creators keep assuring us are coming. Judging by recent federal data, large companies are among those perhaps reconsidering the role AI will play in their operations, at least for now.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, AI adoption among companies with more than 250 employees has been dropping over the past few months. This coincides with a downturn in the addition of new AI services and products in smaller firms as well. Is it just a summer swoon due to vacations and the preparation of new budgets, or is the business world starting to realize that AI isn't yet in a place where it can capably replace a lot of human work? Despite the recent slowdown, investing in AI-creation firms showing no signs of slowing down, so clearly many still believe in AI's capabilities.
No, I Don't Want To Change That Word
While AI has not lived up to every prediction its creators and supporters suggested it might, it has still become a part of most people's daily lives, particularly for lawyers. From making (sometimes unwelcome) grammatical suggestions to issuing driving directions that allow you to avoid traffic on the way to the courthouse, AI continues to prove itself useful in many ways.
For businesses, AI's potential seemed limitless and something every type of company could find a use for. Generative artificial intelligence (GAI), which consists of Large Language Models (LLMs) that scrape as much information as possible to enhance their training, offered quick and effortless research that could then be formed into usable documents. Need a movie script? Toss a couple of ideas into the GAI blender and BAM! Your next blockbuster was in your hands in a matter of moments.
Well, that was the theory, anyway. While there have been numerous successes, there's also been a lot of art with six-fingered humans, social media bots, and AI hallucinations in ill-advised AI legal filings. Whether due to AI creators overselling their products, users expecting too much or overreaching, or a combination of both, the integration of AI into the corporate and legal world has been a bit of a bumpy road. While the money continues to pour in for those developing AI products, businesses are showing signs of giving the brakes a pump or two.
I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That
It's not common knowledge, but over 1.2 million firms are subject to a biweekly survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. One of the questions focuses on each company's use and adoption of AI tools to help provide services or produce goods during the preceding two weeks. This includes voice recognition, language processing, machine learning, or virtual agents.
The data shows a decline in AI adoption within larger companies since June 2025. While it's a small sample, the drop is drawing attention because bigger firms generally have more resources and funds at their disposal, which makes them more apt for exploring new business methods such as AI products. Combined with the reduction in AI implementation by smaller firms earlier in the year, it raises an important question: Is this an aberration, or is corporate America beginning to wonder if the uncertainties outweigh the realized benefits?
With the staggering amount of funding flowing into AI firms and attempts by the government to help the industry, artificial intelligence is not likely to disappear. As an emerging technology with untold resources being pumped into its improvement, this could just be a hiccup on the road to general AI adoption in the business and legal worlds. How much impact it's going to continue to have absent those improvements is yet to be calculated.
Related Resources
- Artificial Intelligence Company Pays $1.5 Billion in Settlement, but Did It Really Lose? (FindLaw's Courtside)
- Haven't Started Using AI Yet? You're Not as Behind as You Might Think. (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
- Cloud Computing and the Law: The Basics (FindLaw's Legal Technology)
