Insights from eDiscovery Today’s State of the Industry Report

The eDiscovery Today’s 2025 State of the Industry Report highlights how generative AI has become integral to legal technology, bringing advantages and challenges. Based on survey responses from 551 industry professionals, the report examines the impact of AI, predictive coding, mobile device data discovery, and the evolving treatment of hyperlinked files in eDiscovery workflows.

Generative AI is increasingly shaping eDiscovery, with 26% of respondents expecting it to have a transformative effect in 2025 and over 80% predicting it will introduce new workflows. However, widespread adoption remains limited, with only 12.3% using it in most or all cases. Predictive coding is slowly being adopted, with 30.8% of respondents using it frequently, while nearly 25% use it sparingly or not at all. The discovery of data from mobile devices and collaboration apps continues to grow. Over a third of respondents incorporate mobile data in most cases, and a similar percentage do so for collaboration apps.

The survey identified the most significant eDiscovery trend for 2025 as the increased use of AI technology, including generative AI, followed by the expansion of cloud-based eDiscovery solutions. A notable challenge remains the persistent lack of eDiscovery competence within the legal field, which 26.1% of respondents feel is not being addressed sufficiently, and 15.1% feel it is not used for use cases other than litigation.

One of the ongoing industry debates acknowledged in the survey revolves around whether hyperlinked files should be treated as “modern attachments” in email and messaging systems. Courts have expressed concerns about the burden of reuniting these files with their parent messages, leaving many documents effectively orphaned.

The eDiscovery Today’s 2025 State of the Industry Report also includes insights from industry thought leaders who provide further analysis of these key trends and challenges. Their perspectives offer a broader view of how technology and legal workflows evolve, shaping the future of eDiscovery.