Sample profile
This section details the characteristics of the surveyed organizations, such as the practice areas of the firms, the industry of the legal departments, the main country of operation, the size of the legal team, the percentage of the budget allocated to technology, among others.
Most have already adopted AI (73.6% of law firms, 69.4% of legal departments), but many operate almost without metrics (43% of firms, 51.3% of departments). It is adoption without a compass: the backdrop for reading everything that follows.
The organizational profile is a control variable that allows the findings to be interpreted correctly. Digital transformation must be designed around concrete realities, opportunities and constraints. A boutique firm and the legal department of a multinational company may share the same modernization goal, but they start from very different realities and needs. For firms and departments, this module makes it possible to run that comparison against their peers by size, country, sector.
Distribution by country
Within the "Other (please specify)" category for law firms (9 firms) are: the United States (5), Spain (2), Venezuela (1) and Costa Rica (1).
Within "Other" for legal departments are the United States, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and the European Union (1 each).
Distribution by industry (Legal departments)
The "Other" category (12 departments) groups very diverse sectors, each with a single respondent: construction and infrastructure, real estate, aviation, education, the music industry, electromobility, human resources, security, among others.
Distribution by size
Law firms are concentrated among small firms (those with 1 to 9 lawyers make up almost 40% of the sample), although there is a presence of large firms. Among legal departments, small legal departments (2 to 9 people) predominate, even in very large companies.
Starting point: management, budget and technology
Beyond their basic characteristics, it is worth understanding the starting point of these organizations in terms of management and technology: how much they invest, how developed their measurement is, how much they know and how much AI they have already adopted. These figures are the backdrop for interpreting everything that follows.
Budget allocated to technology
Most organizations allocate between 0.1% and 10% of their budget to technology. A minority invests more than 10%, and a fraction do not know how much they invest, a figure that is itself revealing about management maturity.
Maturity in metrics (KPI) management
Metrics are the backbone for any organization that wants to modernize in a coherent and structured way. Only in this way can inefficiencies, the return on tools, the distribution of work and efficiency gains be identified. Without metrics, digitalization work becomes an exercise in hunches, lacking a baseline, performance metrics and continuous monitoring.
This foundational component is one of the weakest in the region: 51.3% of legal departments and 43% of firms report operating without metrics or with very basic metrics. This finding stands in direct contrast to the high self-reported rates of AI, as explained below.
Artificial intelligence adoption
73.6% of law firms (53/72) and 69.4% of legal departments (25/36) report having implemented AI. However, when read alongside the low maturity of metrics in the sector, it is unlikely that most organizations are in a position to correctly identify the best use cases for this technology, measure their efficiency gains and a return on investment that justifies, in the medium and long term, that investment.
What do we mean by "management"?
By management we mean the ability to steer operations based on clear objectives and information: defining what you want to achieve, measuring it with metrics, and adjusting based on that data. It matters because an AI adoption (or of any technology) that is not very thoughtful (without a defined objective, without knowing what you want to manage or how to measure it) is unlikely to translate into value. The low maturity of metrics shown in this chapter suggests, precisely, that a large part of the sector's technology adoption happens without that compass.
Level of knowledge in management and technology
Most place themselves at a basic level of knowledge. Only a minority consider themselves at an advanced level. This figure speaks to the previous one: without deep knowledge or measurement discipline, technology is unlikely to deliver its full potential.
How they select technology
We asked what organizations do before contracting a technology tool. The answer reveals how structured (or improvised) their decision process is.
The most frequent tasks are informal (researching online and asking colleagues for recommendations), while the more structured practices (drafting terms of reference, formal pilot tests) are in the minority. This is consistent with the low management maturity: technology selection in the sector relies more on intuition and referral than on formal evaluation processes.
Digital strategy and leadership
Two more questions complete the starting point: what strategy they follow regarding software and who leads digital transformation within the organization.
Around 1 in 5 organizations does not have a defined technology strategy (19% in law firms, 23% in legal departments). Among those that do have one, the model of multiple specialized solutions ("best-of-breed") predominates over the single-vendor suite. It is one more sign that adoption occurs, in large part, without a guiding plan.
An actionable finding: legal departments without clear digital leadership
In law firms, leadership of the transformation usually falls to defined figures (managing partner, partners' committee). In legal departments, by contrast, the 23% state that there is no defined leadership for digital transformation (one of the most actionable figures in the study). Without a clear owner, the modernization is unlikely to advance in a sustained way.
How to cite
Prince Tritto, P., Villa Berger, P., Salmon, L., Muñoz Ponce, M., & Limón González, J. B. (2026). Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech. https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report
Prince Tritto, P., Villa Berger, P., Salmon, L., Muñoz Ponce, M., Limón González, J. B.. 2026. Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech. https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report.
Prince Tritto, P., et al. Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025). Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech, 2026, https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report.
@techreport{princetritto2026legaltech, author = {Prince Tritto, Philippe and Villa Berger, Patricia and Salmon, Luciana and Muñoz Ponce, Marcela and Limón González, José Briam}, title = {Technology Maturity Index for the Legal Industry: pilot study (data from Mexico, 2025)}, institution = {Law and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Universidad Panamericana; KermaPartners; Lemontech}, year = {2026}, url = {https://labderia.up.edu.mx/en/legaltech-report} }