iManage today (11 February) released a new benchmarking report that shows professional services firms with mature, well-governed knowledge foundations significantly outperform their peers on AI adoption, business performance, and client trust.
The report is based on a global study of 3,185 business and technology decision-makers across 26 countries. It builds on iManage’s Knowledge Work Maturity Model; a framework created last year that assesses how effectively organisations govern, connect, and activate knowledge across people, processes, and technology. The model has been used as an underlying classifier in the new research.
The study finds that while 85% of firms are piloting, implementing, or using AI, just 17% have embedded AI into daily operations.
We spoke to iManage’s global insights director Laura Wenzel to unpick some of the findings.
AI maturity drives measurable business outperformance
The report finds that organisations with higher knowledge work maturity are nearly twice as likely as less mature peers to report year-over-year revenue growth and are more likely to self-report profitability and stronger financial performance, according to the study.
Wenzel (pictured above) said: “The research substantiates this notion that investing in knowledge work maturity leads to fundamental different business outcomes. One section of the research asks respondents to talk about a couple of different elements – their revenue, their market leadership, customer/client retention, and employee growth. And one of the amazing findings from this research, when we looked at it by level of maturity, is that the most advanced and mature organisations were extremely positive on every single parameter versus those that were less mature.”
AI adoption is widespread – but operational use lags
While 85% of organisations are piloting, implementing, or using AI, only 17% have integrated AI into daily operations, underscoring the gap between experimentation and real-world impact. The report says that only organisations with strong knowledge foundations are translating experimentation into sustained, everyday value.
Wenzel said: “One of the important things is, when you look at the data as a whole globally, it looks like 85% of the survey respondents are doing something with AI. But then when you start to peel back that onion a little bit, you start to realise that only 17% have fully integrated and rolled out AI, and you’ll find out that those organisations are the most mature organisations.”
She adds: “The most mature organisations not only are experiencing better business performance today, not only are they ahead in terms of where they’re at with AI, but they’re they have reached a point where they are cognisant of the fact that LLMs might become very commoditized. They’re already investing and thinking about how their data, which technically is their clients’ data, is going to really drive that competitive advantage.”
Customer demand is accelerating AI strategy
Overall, 57% of respondents say customers influence their AI adoption, rising to 74% among knowledge-mature organisations, which are also twice as likely to deploy AI in client-facing tools.
However, 32% of respondents said that clients restrict their use of AI.
Wenzel said: “You constantly hear about this sort of push and pull. Firms are being pushed to leverage AI but at the same time, ‘wait a second, we want to be careful.’ The most mature organisations are the ones who are most influenced by their customers and clients, and the least restricted. And these are the ones with the high level of customer retention. They have built rapport. They have built a partnership that is enabling them to listen to their customer and be highly influenced and not restricted.”
Wenzel says that iManage will continue to examine the findings and do qualitative research around it.
Governance gaps are slowing progress
Nearly one-third of organisations report experiencing a policy-impacting incident related to unregulated AI tools, and almost 30% have delayed AI adoption due to security concerns, the report finds.
Wenzel says: “I think 2026 might be the year where governance and the notion of stewardship around governance are going to elevate. The research asked how many of you have experienced an AI policy violation, and that number is 36%. That response is extremely high, so we tightened the language, and it still came back that 36% of respondents have experienced a policy violation, and that is a very strong signal that governance is lacking.
“The other question we asked is around the usage of AI and 25% responded that end users are using AI with very little oversight, so we have shadow AI happening.” The violations slow down firm progress: 20% of respondents said they have delayed their AI rollouts, and 30% said they have cancelled them.
Commenting at the outset of the report, Reena SenGupta, executive director at RSGi said: “This research confirms that investment in knowledge systems, architecture and AI is non-negotiable. Law firm strategy cannot be a wait and see or be a second follower. Competitive advantage is being won by the advanced knowledge organisations and now we have the data to prove it.”
You can access the report here: https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/7cd20b1dd05f47748d42dc127ef99806/0/9359b842046c0dc5a748de3dec046a39cf91abaeb5772ab5c4eb641fe98b5208?cache_buster=1770822101
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