Is the Matter Management Revolution Competition for the AI Boom?

Behind the AI boom, there is a quieter revolution, reports Legal Technology Hub. That revolution is matter management. It includes the entire matter lifecycle from legal requests through to resolution and reporting, making it a foundational tool for Legal Ops. For the past three decades, organizations have chosen to add internal resources rather than increase spend with external legal providers.  Now, however, due to global inflation, adding more bodies just adds complexity and cost. It is no longer efficient.

With a faster pace and more legal work, in-house business clients are demanding more from their legal departments. Unfortunately, the majority of legal departments do not have a simple, foundational tool that tracks work requests, tasks, and deadlines — and provides transparency and automated reporting. Legal Ops has three choices:

1. Straightforward automation and matter management, which are simple first steps in getting organized
2. AI, which is costly and still experimental could provide a magic solution — if it addresses all the foundational issues the legal department needs to solve first.
3. Doing nothing with legal technology and instead continuing to work more and more hours.

So despite the power and bright future of AI and large language models, why is matter management, a simple, foundational tool, enjoying a surge in demand?

The answer is that lawyers are methodical. Part of their DNA is starting at the beginning and moving forward in a considered and logical manner. To leapfrog the foundational tools and go straight to AI may just be too much for them.