LEX survey finds 89% still prefer a person at law-firm intake
One-third said they would hang up if connected to AI, and reported trust that AI would handle a law-firm inquiry correctly fell from 35% to 32%
Inside Practice · SEPTEMBER 14, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
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, and reported trust that AI would handle a law-firm inquiry correctly fell from 35% to 32%. For productized intake, the result argues for automating triage, transcription and routing behind a human-facing service rather than assuming clients will accept an autonomous front door. The research was commissioned by a human answering-service vendor and the page does not provide the full survey instrument or sampling detail, so the percentages should be treated as directional buyer research rather than a neutral market benchmark.