# AI Enabling Expansion into New Practice Areas for Small Law Firms

> Note: This article is just one of 60+ sections from our full report titled: The 2024 Legal AI Retrospective - Key Lessons from the Past Year .

**Author:** Alex Denne  
**Category:** Insights  
**Published:** 2024-12-18  
**Reading time:** 3 min

**Note:** This article is just one of 60+ sections from our full report titled: [The 2024 Legal AI Retrospective - Key Lessons from the Past Year](https://www.genieai.co/blog/legal-ai). Please download the full report to check any citations.

**Expansion into New Practice Areas**

AI-powered legal research tools allow small firms to explore and enter new practice areas more efficiently. A May 2024 report found that solo and small firm lawyers are more likely to adopt AI quickly, with 40% of solos and 35% of small-firm lawyers planning to adopt AI within the next six months, compared to just 24% of lawyers in larger firms.[138]

It is worth noting that during periods of reduced discretionary spending by businesses and consumers, the willingness to embrace potential new revenue streams in new practice areas tends to increase.

AI-powered tools can optimize intellectual property portfolio analysis and management. For instance, Gilbert + Tobin reported that AI has greatly assisted with document reviews, finding and extracting essential data, and providing rapid insights into large data sets.[139]

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