Doug Austin’s Legal Tech Predictions for 2023

Doug Austin, eDiscovery Today founder and editor, shares five legal tech predictions for 2023 that should be on the radar of every eDiscovery and legal professional. First, as long as the economy remains unstable, legal tech and eDiscovery investment will continue to slow down, potentially leading to continued layoffs in the industry. Second, the next big challenge for ediscovery professionals will be Blockchain evidence as companies look to make their numbers for investors, and as the FTX cryptocurrency bankruptcy and subsequent litigation push discovery of blockchain data to the fore. Third, the importance of information governance, early data assessment and targeted collections in discovery is being heralded by legal and eDiscovery professionals. 

Fourth, the misalignment of expectations and results for AI will continue, along with ethical considerations of the use of AI and machine learning technologies in civil and criminal scenarios. Fifth, access to justice will continue to be budget based. Many smaller firms and organizations are still not taking advantage of eDiscovery and other technology solutions. This means that access to justice — or at least the technology that puts them on the same footing as the bigger organizations — will remain elusive.