The UK government has opened up applications for its new Legal Services AI Growth Lab, which aims to help law firms, conveyancers and legal technology companies adopt artificial intelligence (AI) faster.
The previous Keir Starmer administration unveiled its AI Growth Lab plan in 2025, with the aim of supporting growth and responsible AI innovation by making targeted regulatory modifications under robust safeguards and with careful monitoring.
The government sees the legal sector as one that will benefit from greater use of AI if regulations can be tweaked to enable the use of the technology for document processing and analysis. When it opened up a consultation on its AI Growth Lab proposal, the government said AI could support complex elements of the planning process such as environmental impact assessments, where machine learning and large language models could reduce the burden of assessment and help decision-makers and communities make best use of the documents that need to be analysed.
Legal firms taking part in the Legal Services AI Growth Lab will be able to work directly with regulators to understand how existing rules apply to AI, identify barriers slowing adoption and get practical support on using the technology responsibly.
The UK’s AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, said: “The legal services sector employs over 317,000 people up and down the country, and it’s a fundamental part of how we do business and access justice. Society and the economy simply don’t work without it.
“In many ways, this sector is the exemplar case for just how impactful AI is set to be. Smart, responsible use of this technology could make legal services radically more accessible and free up legal professionals to focus on the complex, high-value work where human judgement is irreplaceable. But to make that happen, it’s critical that we get the regulation right, and this first AI Growth Lab will guide us all as we start that important journey.”
The lab brings together the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Legal Services Board, with a view to identifying regulatory barriers to the roll-out of AI in legal services.
AI has the potential to make legal services faster, more affordable and easier to access, such as streamlining solicitors’ work, which, if the savings are passed on, means small businesses will face lower legal fees when they need to recover unpaid debts through the courts. Another example of AI efficiency gains is in the property buying and selling process, where AI systems could be used to analyse documents and free up conveyancers to focus on more complex tasks.
Commenting on the scope for using AI in legal services, justice minister Sarah Sackman KC said: “The legal sector is one of the UK’s greatest economic strengths, generating more than £40bn in recent years. It is important that our services industry keeps pace and remains at the forefront of digital innovation.
“That is why we are accelerating innovation across the legal sector, boosting productivity and delivering a modern justice system that can help cement the UK’s position as a global leader in legal services.”
