December wouldn’t be December in Legal Tech Land without our most venerated of traditions: predictions for the coming year.
In the next few weeks, we’re likely to see a flood of predictions hitting social and traditional media (some have already started). I, for one, love the predictions tradition. For starters, there are always some brilliant minds in our industry who highlight trends that have not yet hit my radar. It gives me something to look forward to when the days get colder and the slush lakes take over Brooklyn’s street corners.
I also believe that taking stock of where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we might be headed is valuable for approaching legal tech in a realistic, grounded way. It’s all the hope without the hype.
For my part, I’ve been thinking about what topics I expect to dominate articles and thought leadership next year. While I still don’t have a crystal ball yet (Dear Santa, please take note), here’s my predicted content hotlist for 2025:
Agents: Agentic AI took the legal tech world by storm in the second half of 2024. I see no reason why 2025 will be any different, and in fact predict an uptick in product announcements involving agents. I’m less optimistic, though, that the industry will agree on a universal definition of agent.
Hallucinations: While part of me wishes I could write off hallucination stories as so 2023, I don’t think they’re going anywhere any time soon. Whether it’s legal professionals continuing to over-rely on GenAI and not checking their work or developers introducing new ways of improving model output accuracy, hallucinations will likely be a concept we continue to hear a lot about next year.
Benchmarking: Going hand in hand with the prominence of hallucinations will be increased efforts to minimize the impact of them. Benchmarking saw a big surge in popularity this past year, and I expect to see even more effort expended in this area in 2025.
Midsize law firms: Make no mistake—the mid-market is having a moment (and has been for a couple years, in case you didn’t notice). As GenAI and other tech continues to empower midsize firms to make the most of their more limited resources, the competitive playing field will only become more level in 2025. Watch this space for more on that.
Point solutions: While platform approaches have been enjoying their moment in the sun, point solutions have been quietly creeping in to steal the spotlight. At exhibit halls of conferences like ILTACON this past year, there seemed to be a resurgence of point solutions. I expect more of this in 2025, with the question being which ones will survive. And on that note...
Acquisitions: The in legal tech is on fire as we close out 2024. Remember those point solutions dominating the exhibit halls? The larger legacy players are noticing them, too, and are eager to snatch up the best ones. We should expect the consolidation trend to continue in 2025.
Funding: Investment in legal tech is at the highest levels we’ve seen in years, thanks in part to heightened interest outside the traditional legal tech bubble. I speculated last week on the potential impact of this. I expect to see even more money coming into our industry in 2025.
Startups: Even though competition and consolidation are on the rise, there’s still plenty of room for legal tech startups to enter the market and succeed. I predict we’ll continue to see an influx of new companies, particularly GenAI-powered point solutions, in 2025—and maybe even a couple that blow us away with their ideas.
Integrations: Legal tech is more integrated than ever, and that trend will only increase in 2025. Having tools work seamlessly together is no longer a luxury for most legal professionals—they expect it. Going forward, I predict we’ll see more (and more significant) integrations, particularly in ways that break down traditional silos between external precedent and internal, organizational knowledge.
Preserving prompts: With AI use (and AI FOMO) at an all-time high, even the less-tech-savvy who historically avoided getting their hands dirty are now jumping in and playing around. “Playing” means prompting, however, and prompts created as part of legal work could soon be...? Think back to evidence class. That’s right—discoverable. Thankfully, many will also be subject to privilege, but I predict more ediscovery tools will focus on preserving prompts in the coming year.
You might have noticed that I didn’t include GenAI as a hot content item for 2025, and there’s a reason for that. I made a bold prediction at Legalweek 2024: by 2025, we’ll no longer see AI in every session title of every conference. Much like the cloud before it, it will be a given and not something to be called out.
I knew at the time that my prediction was bold and likely premature. It probably still is now. But it’s one I’ll continue to make every year until it inevitably comes true. I just hope that’s sooner rather than later.
The best gift of all: Multiple legal tech companies announced significant funding rounds heading into the end of the year. Among them were:
Legal automation provider Josef announced a “lightning-fast funding round from existing investors including OIF Ventures, Carthona Capital and The LegalTech Fund.” The funding will reportedly help the company to capitalize on the success of Josef Q.
UK-based startup Lawhive raised $40 million in Series A funding, following on an $11.9 million seed round in April. The startup plans to use the funds to expand is offerings to “main street” U.S. lawyers.
AI-powered analytics platform 9fin raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors Spark Capital, Redalpine, Seedcamp, 500 Startups, and Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital. It plans to use the funds to further invest in AI, grow its analytics team, and accelerate its U.S. expansion.
Innovating in-house: Factor announced the second cohort for The Sense Collective, a selective group of GCs focused on spearheading GenAI transformation in in-house legal. The new cohort will add up to 15 new companies to the mix. Factor also launched the Sensemaker Academy, a new service that will facilitate hands-on AI skills workshops catered to in-house needs.
More Microsoft: Harvey announced expanded integrations with Microsoft designed to empower law, tax, and finance firms to simultaneously draw on the Harvey and MS product ecosystems. Specifically, the expansion adds integrations with Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft Word.
Native ediscovery integration: Consilio announced the wide launch of Native AI Review, a fully integrated app that’s accessible directly within third-party review platforms, allowing users to process data within Consilio’s private cloud data centers while taking advantage of market-leading LLMs. The launch follows the September release of Guided AI Review, an offering that blends built-for-review AI tools with experienced, hands-on human experts.
Architecting legal data: The Legal Data Intelligence model announced the first cohort of applicants to be accepted into its new LDI Architects program. The Architects will rely on their data expertise to build out use case models for leveraging data in the areas of Disputes & Investigations, Corporate, Data Protection Compliance, and Business of Law.
The end of review as we know it?: UK-based provider Panoram launched a multi-LLM document review and analysis platform called PanoramAI, aiming to revolutionize relevancy review. The company hopes that GenAI advances will be “the end of human document review.”
Rolling robocops: In the latest Hollywood-esque AI development, China has introduced rolling “AI police robots” that can act autonomously, chase suspects, and survive falls from high places. Capable of speeds up to 35 kilometers- (about 21.75 miles)-per-hour, the spheres can even immobilize suspects with nets. While I welcome our robot overlords if they happen to be reading, color me terrified.
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment of my weekly Tuesday column on recent developments in legal tech and AI that have caught my attention. You can find the previous columnhere. If you have news or stories that you’d like to see featured in a future column, please contact me atstephanie@legaltechnologyhub.com.
