“AI Am Here to Represent You”: Understanding How Institutional Logics Shape Attitudes Toward Intelligent Technologies in Legal Work

Abstract

The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in work is increasingly common across industries and professions. This study explores professional discourse around perceptions and use of intelligent technologies in the legal industry. Drawing on institutional theory, we conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with legal professionals and semi-professionals in varying roles including lawyers, law librarians, legal staff (paralegals, document clerks), and law students. Their discursive accounts provided evidence for three institutional logics—expertise, accessibility, and efficiency—that guided their understanding and use of AI. Our analysis further revealed that legal professionals and semi-professionals held contradictory attitudes towards intelligent technologies and invoked contradictory institutional logics. These findings contribute to theory on institutional logics and digital transformation, providing insights into how occupational roles and institutional logics shape professionals’ discursive construction of intelligent technologies, and how discursive tensions are redefining professional boundaries and contributing to institutional change in knowledge-intensive work.