LEX survey finds 89% prefer a person at law-firm intake

On September 9, LawSites published LEX Reception’s OnePoll survey of 6,000 respondents, in which 89% said they preferred a person rather than AI when contacting a law firm, up from 84% in October 2025. One-third said they would hang up if connected to AI, while reported trust that AI would handle a law-firm inquiry correctly fell from 35% to 32%. For mid-sized firms, the findings suggest that client-facing differentiation may come from using AI behind human intake for transcription, triage and routing rather than making automation the front door. The research was commissioned by a human answering-service vendor, so leaders should treat it as directional buyer evidence and test their own conversion, abandonment and satisfaction data.