Clarivate Report Reveals 85% Adoption of AI Across the Intellectual Property Ecosystem
Comfort with AI in IP workflows increased from 57% in 2023
Trust remains critical with 65% of attorneys citing Governance as top barrier to scale
London, U.K. November 18, 2025: Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today announced the release of its new report, The evolution of AI in IP: Adoption, impact and readiness. The report explores how the pace of developments in artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting IP law, practice, processes, and the wider legal sector. It also analyzes the perspectives of intellectual property (IP) and research and development (R&D) professionals to gain insight into their attitudes toward AI.
The survey conducted by Clarivate reveals a shift in how AI is being integrated into IP workflows and highlights widespread adoption, growing confidence, and the urgent need for robust governance to ensure sustainable impact. Over the past two years, AI adoption among IP professionals across corporate and law firm environments surged from 57% to 85%. The market is no longer questioning whether they should adopt AI but how to deploy it with precision, governance and purpose. Attorneys and in-house counsel continue to approach adoption with caution, evaluating it through the lens of liability, client privilege, and evidentiary standards.
Maroun S. Mourad, President, Intellectual Property, Clarivate, said: “At Clarivate, we believe the meaningful deployment of responsible and ethical AI solutions across the IP industry enables our clients to augment their capabilities and become exponentially more productive and deliver high-quality work products. Our proprietary data assets and deep IP expertise have uniquely positioned us to launch a series of AI native and enhanced solutions to serve our clients’ needs.”
The report finds that as AI becomes more embedded into workflows; confidence also grows. Among law firms using AI in three or more workflows, Net Promoter Score (NPS) indicating support for AI rises to 52%, compared to 0% among firms not using AI. Corporates show a similar pattern, with support reaching 53% among those actively using AI. However, attorneys remain cautious, with most expecting AI to have a limited impact on their roles.
AI is increasingly applied to strategic tasks, such as competitive intelligence (37%), research and discovery (36%) and patentability, FTO and validity analysis (35%). While models can surface relevant prior art and trends, legal interpretation and contextual judgment remain essential, reinforcing the importance of human-AI collaboration.
Other key findings:
- Governance is essential: Privacy, liability, accuracy and explainability remain top concerns. 65% of attorneys cite privacy and liability as barriers to broader adoption. AI’s value in IP practice depends on how it is internally governed, contextualized and reliably and transparently embedded into IP practices.
- Expectations are evolving: While benefits like automation and productivity remain strong, professionals now demand measurable outcomes and reliability only achievable by AI trained on high-quality data and with professional oversight.
- Regional differences in sentiment: Asia-Pacific leads in comfort levels (+13), while Europe shows the highest anticipated impact on professional roles (+35), influenced by evolving regulatory frameworks like the EU AI Act.
While IP professionals globally are engaging with AI in increasingly meaningful ways, adoption is being recalibrated against higher standards of reliability. Part of this recalibration lies in the technology itself. General-purpose platforms have gained foothold due to their accessibility and integration into enterprise environments, but they cannot substitute specialized, IP-adapted solutions designed to meet the profession’s rigorous standards. Advanced systems trained on high-quality data offer greater reliability.
To learn more, please read The evolution of AI in IP: Adoption, impact and readiness report.
###
About Clarivate
Clarivate is a leading global provider of transformative intelligence. We offer enriched data, insights & analytics, workflow solutions and expert services in the areas of Academia & Government, Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com
Media contact:
Sofia Nogués, Sr. External Communications Manager
