Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence: How Dutch Lawyers’ Perceptions Shape Their Willingness to Integrate AI
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2025-06-24
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en
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This thesis investigates how Dutch lawyers make sense of artificial intelligence in their work and how these perceptions shape their willingness to integrate AI into daily legal practice. Grounded in Sensemaking Theory (Weick 1995), the study focuses on four key aspects: the social dimension. identity construction, retrospection and prospection, and enactment, alongside the concept of willingness to integrate. Using qualitative data from fifteen semi-structured interviews with Dutch lawyers and applying the Gioia methodology (Gioia et al., 2012), the research identifies five aggregate dimensions: changing perception and adoption of AI, AI as an efficiency and productivity enhancer, the irreplaceable human core in legal work, ethical and legal preconditions for AI use, and professional identity and contextual adoption factors.
The findings reveal that lawyers perceptions can shift from initial skepticism to pragmatic engagement in particular when AI clearly improves efficiency in repetitive or data-intensive tasks. At the same time, lawyers emphasize the irreplaceable value of human judgment, empathy, and strategic thinking. Ethical concerns, professional responsibility and the lack of regulatory guidance lead lawyers to create their own boundaries for acceptable AI use. The study concludes that willingness to integrate AI for lawyers is not only driven by practical considerations but also shaped by an evolving and socially constructed sensemaking process that is based on identity, professional norms, organizational context and future expectations of the legal profession.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen