I polled lawyers about AI tools. The results were revealing.
ChatGPT dominated. But the comments told a different story.
I recently polled solo and small-firm lawyers about which AI tools they use most.
ChatGPT won in a landslide — 57%.
No surprise there. It’s the most well-known, most accessible option. It’s where most people start.
But the comments told a more interesting story.
The “all-in on one tool” trap
One lawyer wrote: “I’ve been all in with ChatGPT and not dabbling with others.”
That’s most lawyers right now. And I think it’s a mistake.
Not because ChatGPT is bad — it’s excellent. But because different AI tools have genuinely different strengths:
Claude tends to produce more nuanced, natural-sounding writing. For drafting client communications or analyzing complex arguments, many lawyers prefer it.
Perplexity is built specifically for research. It cites its sources and is less likely to fabricate information than a general chatbot.
NotebookLM by Google lets you upload documents and have an AI conversation about your own files — great for case prep and document review.
Using only ChatGPT is like owning a full toolbox but only ever reaching for the hammer.
What I’d recommend
You don’t need to use everything. But you should at least test two or three tools so you understand the differences.
Here’s a simple experiment:
1. Take one task — say, summarizing a deposition transcript
2. Run it through ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity
3. Compare the results
You’ll see real differences in tone, accuracy, and usefulness. And you’ll start building an intuition for which tool to reach for depending on the job.
The lawyers who get the most from AI aren’t the ones using the “best” tool. They’re the ones who know which tool is best for this task.
;-)
Ernie
P.S. In the Inner Circle, we test and compare tools like this regularly — so you don’t have to experiment by yourself → https://innercircle.ernietheattorney.net/