Clarivate has published The evolution of AI in IP: Adoption, impact and readiness, a report examining how advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping intellectual property law, professional practice, operational processes, and the broader legal sector. The analysis incorporates perspectives from intellectual property (IP) and research and development (R&D) professionals to assess current attitudes and readiness levels.
The survey indicates a significant shift in the way AI is being used within IP workflows. Adoption across corporate teams and law firms has increased from 57% to 85% over the past two years. The findings show that the industry is transitioning from debating whether AI should be adopted to determining how it should be implemented with precision, adequate governance, and clearly defined purpose. Attorneys and in-house counsel continue to assess adoption through considerations related to liability, client privilege, and evidentiary requirements.
Insights presented in the report underscore the belief that responsible and ethical deployment of AI can expand professional capabilities, increase productivity, and strengthen the quality of work outputs. The organization notes that proprietary data assets and domain expertise have supported the development of AI-native and AI-enhanced solutions tailored to IP sector needs.
Confidence in AI appears to increase as usage expands. Among law firms employing AI in three or more workflows, Net Promoter Score support reaches 52%, compared to 0% among firms that do not use AI. Similar trends are observed in corporate environments, where support is 53% among active users. Despite this, attorneys are largely cautious and expect AI to have a limited impact on their roles in the near term.
AI is now being applied to high-value strategic tasks, including competitive intelligence (37%), research and discovery (36%), and patentability, freedom-to-operate, and validity analysis (35%). While AI models can identify relevant prior art and emerging patterns, legal assessment, contextual interpretation, and professional judgment continue to be essential components of IP decision-making.
Key findings from the report include the following:
● Governance is essential: Privacy, liability, accuracy, and explainability remain central concerns. Sixty-five percent of attorneys identify privacy and liability as major obstacles to broader adoption. The effectiveness of AI in IP practice depends on governance frameworks that ensure context, reliability, and transparent implementation.
● Expectations are evolving: Although productivity and automation benefits remain strong, professionals now expect measurable outcomes and consistent reliability, which depend on high-quality data and expert oversight.
● Regional differences in sentiment: Comfort with AI is highest in Asia-Pacific, with a positive sentiment shift of +13 points, while Europe shows the greatest anticipated impact on professional roles (+35), influenced in part by regulatory developments such as the EU AI Act.
Global engagement with AI across the IP sector continues to deepen, but adoption is being reassessed against rising expectations for reliability. This recalibration is driven partly by technology maturity and partly by professional standards. General-purpose AI platforms have expanded due to accessibility and enterprise integration, yet they are not designed to replace specialized IP-focused solutions. Systems trained on high-quality, domain-specific data offer more dependable performance aligned with the requirements of IP professionals.
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