Dentons Report Finds AI-Generated Legal Correspondence Is Overwhelming In-House Teams as Volume Grows Faster Than Capacity to Respond
A report by global law firm Dentons, based on interviews with senior in-house lawyers at Irish and international companies, has found that the boom in AI-generated legal correspondence is 'not about to level off any time soon', with in-house legal teams facing a step-change in the volume of complaints, contracts, and correspondence they are required to process. The report, titled 'From AI Adoption to AI Advantage', was produced by Dentons' Dublin-based technology, media and telecommunications partners Carlo Salizzo and David Kirton. Its central finding is that because producing polished, professional-looking text is now nearly cost-free, the volume of incoming correspondence to in-house legal teams has grown accordingly, and 'nobody in this research thought that volume was about to level off any time soon.' The in-house lawyers interviewed described the increase as driven by AI tools that make it equally fast to produce a complaint, a subject access request (a request by an individual to access data held about them under data protection law), or a legal opinion as to produce high volumes of such documents simultaneously. Mr Kirton warned that the risk is that 'genuine voices and genuine issues get drowned out in the noise of AI-generated arguments that are exaggerated, or just not based on fact.' On the positive side, the report found that replacement of roles or functions as a result of AI was 'very much the exception, not the rule', with AI settling in as an 'assistant' layer supporting humans rather than substituting for them. However, on pricing, the report flagged that consumption-based pricing models look set to replace flat licence fees for AI tools, with one interviewee warning of 'a coming cost cliff for firms that have not planned for it.' In response to the volume challenge, Dentons said it has launched a managed service for high-volume complaint handling on behalf of clients, positioning the volume problem itself as a new service line.