An international law firm has reportedly restricted the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its employees after finding that their use has dramatically intensified.

According to a BBC report, an investigation conducted by law firm Hill Dickinson's chief technology officer found that the company’s employees used ChatGPT more than 32,000 times in a seven-day period recorded between January and February.

The firm also identified a high usage of other AI powered platforms including Chinese DeepSeek, with 3,000 hits, and Grammarly, with 50,000 hits.

The analysis could not identify the number of people involved in the use, as many visits could have been carried out repeatedly by individual users.

However, because part of the usage was not aligned with Hill Dickinson's AI policy, the law firm said employees will now have to raise a formal request to access these tools.

Hill Dickinson, who has more than a thousand employees in the UK and four overseas offices, told BBC News that it is aiming to positively embrace the use of AI tools to enhance its capabilities while always ensuring safe and proper use by its people and for its clients.

The company specified that its AI policy includes requirements such as employees verifying the accuracy of information generated by large language model responses and prohibiting the uploading of personal customer information. For this reason, it stated that the new policy requiring staff to make formal requests for the use of AI tools will ensure a safer use.

According to the annual Future of Professionals report published by Thomson Reuters in January, law firms are increasingly using AI tools to enhance operations and improve client services, including for services such as document drafting and review, legal research and predictive analytics.

The report adds that AI is expected to save legal professionals around 12 hours per week over the next five years, or 200 hours per year, with a potentially significant return on investment, as well as achieving a better work-life balance and reducing employee burnout.

Last month, UK-based Avantia Law announced it had become the first legal firm to develop its own AI agent platform.

The agent, called Ava, is a purpose-built, in-house system designed to streamline legal work, take care of routine legal processes, manage lawyer workflow, and deliver faster outcomes for the company’s clients.

The technology was developed by Avantia’s AI experts, who previously built Bloomberg’s natural language processing platforms and the AI platform that underpins BlackRock’s private markets technology.

The law firm said that Ava combines advanced AI capabilities with oversight from senior lawyers to “redefine how legal services are delivered.”

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