Welcome to Attorney Intelligence, where we break down the biggest advancements in AI for legal professionals.

As we head into the new year, we’re thinking about how the legal tech landscape will shift in 2026. In 2025, firms focused on experimentation: pilots, proofs of concept, and vendor evaluations. By 2026, those exploratory phases will give way to operational reality. Law firms will be judged less on whether they use AI and more on how effectively it is embedded into the business of law.

Based on what I’m seeing across vendors, firms, and clients, three trends will define Legal Tech in 2026.

Increased Automation Will Reshape Legal Operations

Automation will be the most visible Legal Tech trend in 2026, not because it’s new, but because it will finally begin to look cohesive. Today, many firms use AI tools in isolation—one for contract review, another for legal research, and a third for timekeeping. In 2026, those point solutions will increasingly be stitched together into automated workflows that span an entire matter lifecycle.

These integrated solutions are already manifesting in the forms of strategic partnerships among legal tech startups and diversified offerings from established players. This past summer, legal startup Harvey launched a “strategic alliance” with LexisNexis, allowing Harvey users who also subscribe to LexisNexis access to its research content directly with Harvey’s app.

A few months later, practice management software provider Clio acquired legal intelligence platform vLex as part of its initiative to expand its AI-assisted offerings across the legal intake, drafting, and research functions. This one-stop-shop model is likely to gain traction in 2026, driving more strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

Predictive Analytics Will Influence Legal Strategy

Predictive analytics will move from the fringes of legal practice into the strategic core. By 2026, AI systems will be routinely used to forecast litigation outcomes, estimate settlement ranges, and assess deal risk using historical data, judicial behavior, and market trends.

During panels at both FutureLawyer USA and the International Legal Technology Association Conference, we heard from firm leaders that though alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) are unlikely to replace the billable hour model anytime soon, AFAs are likely on the rise—especially for matters with repeatable processes and more predicable outcomes. M&A transactions are a good place to start, as the parameters remain fairly consistent across deals.

Clients—particularly sophisticated in-house teams—will increasingly expect their outside counsel to support recommendations with probabilistic insights. “Because this is how we’ve always done it” will be a weaker justification than “Based on comparable matters, this approach has a 70% likelihood of success.”

That said, predictive analytics will not eliminate uncertainty. Models will still be constrained by data quality and context, and firms will need to cultivate leaders internally who can interpret AI insights responsibility.

Compliance and Security Will Become Competitive Differentiators

As AI tools become more deeply embedded in legal workflows, compliance and security concerns will intensify in 2026. Law firms sit on some of the most sensitive data in the economy, and AI systems amplify both the value and the risk of that data.

Clients and regulators will demand greater transparency into how AI tools are trained, how data is stored, and whether outputs can be audited or explained. Law firms that demonstrate robust cybersecurity practices can turn those practices into a competitive advantage: In a recent survey of law firm clients by IT provider Integris, 40% of respondents said they would consider paying more for law firms that boast cutting edge technology—and an additional 41% said that while they may not pay more, they would choose a firm with strong cybersecurity measures over one without them.

That means pairing up with legal tech providers that have federal and state data security certifications—like HIPAA, GDPR, and Soc Type II—will not only be a safeguard, but a selling point.

Legal bytes

Here are the latest updates in legal tech and AI:

Courts struggle to address AI-hallucinated case citations - Two years after the first prominent instance of fake case citations appeared in a US court, there have been roughly 712 legal decisions written about hallucinated content in court cases worldwide, signaling additional stress on judges (Bloomberg Law).

Meta announces $2.5 billion acquisition of Manus - Meta will acquire Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup with Chinese roots, for $2.5 billion after the startup made strategic decisions to position the company for US investment (Wall Street Journal).

BriefCatch raises $6 million in Series A funding - BriefCatch, a legal tech company that helps legal professionals improve their legal writing, has raised a $6 million Series A led by the growth equity investing firm Full In (LawSites).

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Until next time,

Katon