These days, in legal tech, the volume is all the way up. Huge trust has been placed in these tools, faster than users ever gave it to TAR or the cloud. More data per matter is being reviewed with AI every day.
The volume hides the real story, which is that the talk is running well ahead of the practice. The legal profession hasn’t yet changed how it works, but the tools are already everywhere you look. Harvey. Legora. Claude. aiR. DeepDive. Cecilia. Firms I talk with are signed up to more than one. It reminds me of what happened to television. We thought we’d cut the cable bill, and then we signed up for Netflix, Disney, and the rest of them, and one day we looked at the total and realized we were paying more than we did before, for more programming than we could ever watch.
This is where legal AI is heading. We are collecting AI subscriptions faster than we are changing how the work gets done. The bill will come due.
The ground keeps moving
The tools are evolving at breakneck speed. New platforms promise to transform legal practice. eDiscovery platforms rush to release new capabilities, new packaging, new lines around what’s included and what isn’t. That’s the shape of the moment. But our clients sense it. Just as a team gets comfortable, the foundation shifts.
Keeping up with all of it is a full-time job. It shouldn’t be yours. That’s where CDS comes in.
If AI is the magic, we’re the method – people, process, and proven results. The tools are genuinely powerful, but their value lies in knowing where to use them, what to ask, when to trust the answer, and how to prove it.
Reality check: It’s not about who’s got the most AI tools. It’s knowing when, and when not, to use them.
Method, where it matters
Since there’s no playbook yet, we write our own. We’ve developed a methodology for aiR for Review (RAPID), and most recently a novel workflow that adapts Case Strategy for European investigations. We deploy and measure, adjust and refine.
And while we’re still devising the best ways to use these tools, we’re also learning how they’ll be judged. AI review had its first real court test this summer, and the technology passed. What the court scrutinized was the process: how the document set was built, what was disclosed, whether the work was proportionate. The tool wasn’t on trial. The method was.
The five solutions we entered in Relativity’s Innovation Awards this year are what method looks like in practice, across five different stages of the matter lifecycle. Every solution started as an answer to a client problem: too much data and no fast way in, productions that break on one bad field, automations that don’t survive the move to a new platform. Not glamorous. But necessary.
The real work is managing what it costs
Everyone’s arguing about what AI can do. Fewer people are talking about what it costs to run, and that reckoning is coming fast. Token costs, licensing costs, the price of pouring everything through a model because you can. The organizations that invest the most in AI aren’t necessarily coming out on top. The ones who are deliberate about applying it to their workflows will determine both what it costs and how much value they get back.
That’s what our CDS mantra, “promote less, review less, store less” means. Do the prep work upstream, before data is pushed into the places where cost starts to meter and compound.
Bet on experience
Twenty years in eDiscovery means we’ve watched more than one “this changes everything!” technology arrive, get loud, and settle. As an independent, privately held service provider, we maintain perspective and objectivity, and tell clients the truth. We help you choose the right platform and get the most value from it.
So, can you pump up the volume and turn down the noise at the same time? I say ‘Yes, but’ – not simply by spending more on Gen AI. By being deliberate. By committing to the method.
That’s what we do every day. If you’re working through these questions right now, let’s talk.
CDS will be at Relativity Fest in Chicago, September 29 to October 1.
