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Thomson Reuters Institute · February 2026

2026 AI in Professional Services Report

Thomson Reuters Institute's 2026 AI in Professional Services Report (February 2026; n=1,514, fielded Oct–Nov 2025) found that 40% of professionals say their organization uses GenAI, up from 22% a year earlier.

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Few organizations measure the ROI of their AI toolsPercent of professionals, 'Is your organization measuring the ROI of AI tools?', 2026
No
42%
Don't know
40%
Yes
18%
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, 2026, p. 17 (Infographic 7).

Key findings

  1. 01
    Organizational GenAI use nearly doubled to 40%, up from 22% the prior year.
  2. 02
    Only 18% say their organization tracks ROI of AI tools.
  3. 03
    15% of organizations use agentic AI; another 53% are planning or considering it.

By the numbers

40%of professionals say their organization uses GenAI, up from 22% a year earlier
18%say their organization tracks the ROI of AI tools
15%say their organization uses agentic AI; another 53% are planning or considering it
Internal cost savings is the most common AI ROI metricPercent of respondents whose organization measures AI ROI, by metric used, 2026
Internal cost savings
77%
Employee usage
64%
Employee satisfaction
42%
Client satisfaction
26%
Projected external revenue generation
23%
New business won
17%
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, 2026, p. 17 (Infographic 7).

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

Organization-wide AI use in legal and accounting has moved fast, but very few firms measure whether it is paying off. For a professional services firm our size, deciding up front how we will judge AI (hours, margin, client outcomes) may be a cheap way to avoid a year of activity without clear results.

Limitations

High trust.Large sample, clear methodology section; note Thomson Reuters sells AI tools (e.g., CoCounsel) to these professions.

About the publisher: Sells AI tools for legal, tax and accounting.

The headline figure measures the “Approved” stage of adoption (sanctioned in a function).Why adoption numbers disagree

Cite the original

Thomson Reuters Institute. "2026 AI in Professional Services Report." February 9, 2026. https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/institute/reports/2026-ai-in-professional-services-report

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