At ILTACON 2026, the most interesting conversation was not simply about whether legal teams should adopt AI. That question has largely been answered. The harder question is how firms make good decisions in a market where almost every vendor is promising faster review, better insight and smarter legal workflows.
Five years ago, many people still looked to the United States as the clear leader in eDiscovery technology.
AI has changed that dynamic. It has not removed expertise, scale or market advantage, but it has narrowed the gap and given firms everywhere access to tools that were previously harder to build, buy or justify.
That wider market context made Murali Baddula’s expert panel especially relevant. As Law In Order’s Chief Digital Officer, Murali joined the discussion on “Document Review Strategy Playbook: Mastering the AI + Human Partnership,” exploring how legal teams can adopt AI responsibly while maintaining defensibility, quality and client trust.
Walking the conference floor, it was impossible to miss the scale of AI investment. The energy was genuine, but so was the confusion. Booth after booth promised similar outcomes through different interfaces, workflows and terminology. For experienced practitioners, that creates an important challenge. For newer buyers, it can be overwhelming.
The visibility of larger players such as Harvey and Legora also raised a practical question for mid-tier firms. When the biggest booths dominate attention and the smaller vendors are offering overlapping claims, how should a firm choose where to invest? The answer is unlikely to be found in booth size, brand noise or feature lists alone.
The question should not be which AI platform looks most impressive. It should be which platform can be implemented safely, explained to clients, governed properly and supported by people who understand the legal context. That is where the real differentiation must sit.
Why Legal Teams Are Turning to AI
The drivers behind AI adoption in legal review are becoming increasingly clear. Organisations are under pressure to reduce the cost of document review, respond to matters more quickly, gain earlier insights from evidence, and demonstrate measurable returns on technology investments. At the same time, legal and compliance teams are managing exponentially larger and more complex data sets than ever before.
From Document Review to Intelligence-Led Discovery
One of the most impactful discussions during the session focused on how Generative AI is changing the purpose of document review itself.
Historically, document review has been centred on determining responsiveness and privilege. Today’s AI-powered workflows allow legal teams to move beyond reviewing documents and begin extracting intelligence from data. AI can assist with identifying hot documents, building fact chronologies, generating timelines, locating references to key individuals or events, detecting potentially inappropriate behaviour, identifying sensitive information, and supporting deposition preparation.
Why Human Expertise Still Matters
While the capabilities of Generative AI are advancing rapidly, one of the strongest themes throughout the session was that successful AI adoption still relies heavily on people.
This reinforces a practical point. AI can improve review speed and insight, but only when it is supported by clear objectives, strong workflows and experienced human oversight.
The panel discussed the importance of the “human-in-the-loop” model, where legal teams remain actively involved at key decision points throughout a review project. In practice, this means using subject matter experts to define review criteria, validate AI-generated outcomes, refine prompts and instructions, and conduct quality assurance reviews. Human oversight remains critical, particularly when handling privilege determinations, sensitive information, and high-risk matters.
The most successful AI review programs are those where technology and expertise operate together, rather than independently.
Defensibility and Court Acceptance Are Evolving
A key concern for many organisations evaluating AI-assisted review is whether courts and regulators will accept the outcomes.
The session highlighted that while Generative AI review is still relatively new, there is growing acceptance of AI-assisted workflows provided organisations can demonstrate transparency, defensibility, and appropriate validation methodologies. Recent cases discussed during the session indicate that courts are increasingly focused on the reasonableness of a review process rather than the specific technology used.
The panel stressed that defensibility does not come from simply using AI—it comes from implementing repeatable processes, maintaining auditability, validating results, and documenting methodologies. Organisations adopting AI need to be prepared to explain how decisions were made, how outputs were tested, and how quality was measured.
This reinforces the importance of governance, documentation, and expert oversight when introducing AI into legal workflows.
Building the Right Governance Framework
AI adoption is not solely a technology challenge – it is an operational and governance challenge.
Successful organisations are establishing guardrails that ensure AI can be used safely, effectively, and consistently across matters. These guardrails include transparency and explainability, robust audit trails, security controls, human review checkpoints, and clearly defined operational procedures.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of developing standard operating procedures and ensuring alignment between legal, compliance, information governance, and technology stakeholders. Without these foundations, organisations risk inconsistent results, increased risk exposure, and reduced confidence in AI-assisted decisions.
As AI adoption accelerates, governance will increasingly become a key differentiator between organisations that successfully scale AI and those that struggle to move beyond pilot programs.
The Future Is Already Here
One of the most telling statistics shared during the presentation was that 79% of legal professionals are now using AI in some form. AI is no longer an emerging trend – it is rapidly becoming part of everyday legal operations.
The conversation has shifted from whether organisations should use AI to how they can use it responsibly, effectively, and strategically. Early adopters are already using AI to accelerate review, improve consistency, identify evidence faster, and create efficiencies across the legal matter lifecycle. Those who fail to develop an AI strategy risk falling behind as both client expectations and industry capabilities continue to evolve.
How Law In Order Can Help
At Law In Order, our role is to help clients look past the hype and make practical decisions about AI in eDiscovery. That means assessing the problem first, choosing the right workflow second and only then deciding which technology should support it.
Our team combines deep expertise in eDiscovery, information governance, document review, legal technology, and managed services to help clients navigate complex legal and regulatory challenges. From AI readiness assessments and discovery strategy through to technology implementation and managed review, we support organisations at every stage of their digital transformation journey.
Whether your organisation is:
- Exploring Generative AI for document review
- Looking to reduce review costs and timelines
- Strengthening information governance practices
- Managing investigations, disputes, or regulatory matters
- Evaluating Relativity and AI-powered review workflows
- Developing governance frameworks for responsible AI adoption
our experts can help create a strategy that aligns technology, people, and process for measurable outcomes.
Continue the Conversation
The insights shared at ILTACON reinforced a simple reality: the future of legal review is not AI alone, nor human review alone.
The future does not belong to the loudest AI vendor. It belongs to the teams that can ask better questions, apply the right tools and keep legal judgement at the centre of the process.
If you would like to discuss how AI can transform your eDiscovery, review, investigations, or information governance programs, we’d welcome the opportunity to connect.
Contact Law In Order today to explore how our expertise, technology solutions, and managed services can help your organisation unlock the full value of AI while maintaining the quality, transparency, and defensibility that modern legal matters demand.
