A new survey has revealed that AI adoption has surged this year among professional service industries, although half of workers are using AI tools not authorised by their firm.

With results gathered from among more than 800 accounting, consulting, finance, and legal professionals across the US and UK, Intapp’s 2025 Tech Perceptions Survey found that almost three-quarters (72%) of professionals report using AI at work, a considerable rise from just 48% in 2024.

According to software firm Intapp, white collar workers are increasingly recognising the benefits of using AI at work, with 62% believing the tech has been highly useful, especially when it comes to time-consuming manual tasks.

The survey shows that the most prominent AI use cases and the highest areas of growth for AI use are in summarising data (41%), generating documents (40%), although AI tools are also being relied on more for research (36%) and error checking (33%).

The study found that by taking on these mundane tasks, AI is freeing up professional workers to think of more creative solutions, improve turnaround times, and impress clients, with 42% saying they had reallocated time saved by AI to focus on higher-level client work, with more than a quarter (28%) strengthening their relationships with clients as a result.

AI is also helping businesses’ bottom line, as 24% of workers have reallocated time saved to increase billable hours, while 23% have used the time saved to pursue new business opportunities.  

“AI is becoming an essential part of the workflow for professionals, who are driving top-line and bottom-line growth within their firms as a result,” said Robin Tech, vice president of AI and Data at Intapp. 

“Widespread AI adoption is here to stay, and firms that are not ready are falling behind.”

Drilling further into the data, those working in the finance industry were found to be the most likely to use AI tools, with 89% of professionals using the tech at work, adding to an overall 71% adoption rate among financial companies.

On the other hand, legal professionals are more hesitant to so thoroughly embrace AI, with just 55% using AI at work, potentially due to the multiple well-documented cases of AI inventing fake case law and citing made-up legal information.

With that in mind, perhaps it doesn’t bode well that a staggering 82% of overall professionals said that the quality of AI-generated work was at least as good as their own.

In what might quickly become a major problem, professional workers are not only are often using AI without their firm’s approval or oversight. 

Half (50%) of professionals admitted they’ve used AI tools for work that were not authorised by their firm, while another 23% say that although they’ve not done so yet, they would.

That sentiment could be putting firms in more danger than they realise, by adding to a growing wave of shadow AI by employees, which other recent research has shown to be a grave threat to data security.  

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According to Intapp’s survey, the root of the problem is that these businesses aren’t providing the right technology to suit their employees, with over two-thirds of professionals saying they could do a better job if they had access to better tech.

Those that get it right have a clear advantage, with 90% of workers who feel well equipped being highly satisfied with their firms, compared to just 65% at companies where the technology is falling short.

“Unauthorised AI usage creates new attack vectors threatening data security,” continued Tech.

“Both early adopters and slower adopters will need to be aware of the risks of unauthorised AI usage, particularly with sensitive client data.”