The legal realm is intensely interested in AI. Aren’t we? Conversations, articles, and LinkedIn feeds everywhere have become nonstop sources of AI opinions, hot takes, tips, and tricks. You’ll discover sentiments across the whole spectrum, from fervent concern to diehard advocacy (and plenty of lukewarm in-betweeners), but it’s the sheer amount of dialogue that clues us into something big happening here.
This is a technology that has already—and will continue to—redefine human capabilities, evolve entire industries, and, let’s be honest, solve a lot of problems. We’re on a new frontier, which means now is probably a good time to think proactively about your relationship with AI. To, at the very least, be curious and do your research. And at most, if you’re ready? To begin wrangling it.
The Big Shift
So, the pages of our legal story are flipping, and the times they are a-changin'. How do we navigate this kind of change? We look to those ahead of us on the trail.
This past month, Relativity announced the 2025 cohort of AI Visionaries, an annual list honoring a unique group of innovators, pioneers, and legal professionals tending to the future of AI in legal. These 24 leaders have gotten their hands dirty exploring new areas of understanding and nurturing this technology. Naturally, they offer well-informed perspectives on the shift toward AI.
For Sean Liddle, head of discovery for EY Switzerland, an AI-powered approach is transforming the way his team handles investigations, making processes faster, more efficient, and more insightful.
“Generative AI represents a groundbreaking shift in technology, fundamentally transforming the way we interact with information. In a remarkably short time, it has redefined modern workflows—making it as integral to our daily operations as a search engine.” – Sean Liddle
As director of technology services at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Martha Louks sits at the unique intersection of law and technology. Her work focuses on integrating AI-driven solutions and improving how McDermott manages complex data in litigation and investigations.
“I’m most excited to see how AI helps lawyers elevate the practice of law. Generative AI offers an opportunity to reduce the ‘busy work’ that plagues so many tasks in discovery. I want to see this technology enable lawyers to focus on their highest-value work: shaping case strategy and presenting evidence effectively for their clients.” – Martha Louks
Armando Nardo, senior managing director and global forensic technology leader at Teneo, shares that Teneo not only advises clients on using AI, but also utilizes AI internally to automate and optimize their own processes.
“AI now allows us, at significantly reduced cost and time, to speed up our work, introduce other viewpoints by drawing out connections we might not have made, and grow our services to clients. It’s also very exciting, as a technologist, to be working with something having a profound effect in our lives, inside and outside of work.” – Armando Nardo
Sean, Martha, and Armando agree: in the legal data and technology industry, the emergence of generative AI is changing how we work.
Overcoming Barriers and Maneuvering the Trust Issue
Though innovators like these are certainly moving along, the conversation around AI isn’t yet in full tilt. Instead, it’s being balanced by a complex counterargument: can we trust it? Each of our AI Visionaries shared their thoughts on the issues of trust and fairness around AI.
According to Sean, the barriers to adoption are more psychological than technical. There’s uncertainty among legal professionals about being early adopters—about the potential risks and implementation effort required while balancing their litigation deadlines. Sean offers that starting with a low-risk use case, defining clear success metrics, and scaling gradually, can help organizations ease into their AI use.
Martha puts it bluntly: “Lawyers are trained to be cautious, and with AI, concerns around liability, ethical obligations, and accuracy create hesitation.”
She fervently believes that the AI leap doesn’t have to be off the high dive, saying, “For organizations hesitant to adopt AI, my advice is to start small and focus on targeted, high-impact use cases. AI doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing shift—it can be integrated gradually into workflows to enhance efficiency without disrupting core operations.”
Armando takes us home with a sliver of hope: we are indeed headed in the right direction.
“Our industry relies on trust, fairness, and ensuring we are not biasing outcomes with our application of technologies,” he notes. “I think we’re starting to understand the problem well, and we need to continue to find ways to support the adoption of AI, gaining trust and further acceptance by the legal community and the courts.”
What’s On the Horizon?
We named them our AI Visionaries because they offer just that: vision. These are the individuals paving the way for unique applications of AI in legal. So, if you’re wondering what might be next, checking in with the AI Visionaries is a great place to start.
Higher Quality Work
Martha sees significant opportunities in privilege logging, where AI can quickly generate tailored privilege log descriptions, and case strategy, where AI can automate tasks like chronologies and timelines.
“Tools like these will enable lawyers to focus on higher-value tasks—such as building arguments, advising clients, and preparing for trial,” she explains. “Ultimately, AI isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about enhancing the overall quality of legal work and empowering lawyers to perform at their highest level.”
Beyond Disclosure
Armando anticipates another use: “As an investigator, I am keen to see how AI can support other use cases beyond disclosure. For example, in an investigation, we might want to ask questions of a larger volume of data to help assess whether there is any credence to any allegation. This could help us look at more data early on before committing a lot of hours and cost to following up on allegations which may yield nothing to investigate.”
From Reactive to Proactive
Sean sees opportunities for AI to evolve from reactive review processes to proactive intelligence and risk mitigation. He names the following as key areas of opportunity:
- AI-Powered Litigation Risk Assessment: Proactively assess legal risks by analyzing communication patterns, transactional data, and regulatory compliance gaps, thereby identifying potential issues before they escalate.
- AI-Enhanced Fraud Detection: Fine-tune models to detect subtle indicators of fraud across diverse data sources such as emails, contracts, and financial transactions.
- Data Debt and Information Governance: Leverage generative AI-enabled workflows—especially with offline models—to intelligently categorize and expunge older records, ensuring compliance while reducing data management costs.
- Strategic Advisor: Beyond automating tasks, AI will increasingly serve as a strategic advisor by surfacing insights from historical case data, industry trends, and organizational knowledge. This will empower legal teams, investigators, and corporate leaders to make more informed decisions.
Navigating the New Frontier
All three of these spotlighted AI Visionaries bring a refreshing sense of excitement around AI and its undeniable potential. They each shared unique insight into how AI is creating opportunity.
AI is building bridges and bridging gaps.
AI’s ability to democratize access to knowledge piqued Sean’s interest.
“Vast amounts of valuable data and insights are locked behind technical expertise and financial constraints. With AI, we have the opportunity to bridge this gap—empowering under-served communities, industries, and individuals with advanced capabilities that were previously out of reach,” Sean says.
With each new efficiency comes new possibilities, amounting to a level of accessibility that will surely open countless doors.
Human expertise will always be essential.
Martha eases the nerves of a common argument, admitting that she doesn’t see AI replacing human roles in the industry, but rather, transforming the way that humans work.
“Lawyers will use new tools and processes to achieve better results, with AI automating labor-intensive tasks and reducing the hours required for certain workflows,” she predicts. “However, human expertise will always be essential—to train and configure these systems, validate results, and ensure the accuracy and strategic application of AI-driven insights.”
We have a hand in big things.
Amidst all the chatter, consider this: we in legal data and technology get the opportunity to be hands-on with a tool that is quite literally changing the world. Armando reminds us of this reality: “It’s very exciting, as a technologist, to be working with something that is having a profound change in our lives inside and outside of our occupations.”
Embracing the Future, Together
As we traverse the newness of an ever-evolving legal landscape, the 2025 AI Visionaries remind us that embracing AI is not just an option, but a necessity for staying ahead. We can learn a lot from these pioneers, who are harnessing the power of AI to drive meaningful change in the legal system.
Martha, Sean, and Armando are just three of this incredible group of AI leaders. If you’d like to get to know the rest of the group, check back in soon for more blog features.
Graphics for this article were created by Kael Rose.
Recommended for you
