Legal Technology: Guide, Use Cases, and Trends for 2024 – Gartner
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GenAI isn’t the only new technology on the legal department’s radar but is arguably the most disruptive. Explore the use cases.
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By 2027, the global legal technology market will double in size because of GenAI — and legal leaders face growing pressure to respond. This research report provides insights and recommendations on:
Key trends to consider as you map out a legal technology strategy
The opportunities and risks inherent in GenAI-enabled technology solutions
How to reap the benefits of GenAI legal technology and avoid common pitfalls
Legal technology investments, including those in GenAI, must support business outcomes. Get to know the top GenAI use cases for legal operations and workflows.
Sixty-six percent of legal leaders report plans to accelerate their investments in legal technology as a cost-effective way to manage workloads amid rising budgetary limitations. The most effective legal technology solutions do more than save costs and improve automation; they maximize the value contribution of legal staff by allowing them to focus on high-priority tasks.
Increasingly, legal leaders are moving away from the traditional, siloed approach that focused on sourcing legal technology solutions solely for short-term task automation. To best equip your team, assess specific technology services or solutions based on their utility to in-house legal employees. This approach creates an “augmented legal workforce” in which technology investments complement and enhance employee capabilities to perform legal tasks. By 2026, 50% of office workers in global enterprises will be AI-augmented in one form or another, either to boost productivity or raise the quality of their work.
The following trends support the idea of an augmented legal workforce for in-house legal teams:
Increased use of generative AI (GenAI) to boost legal tasks such as conducting research, drafting and managing contracts, and streamlining intake and self-service systems.
Increased demand for self-service offerings to streamline legal request intake and provide automated guidance to access legal services, reducing the need for direct legal intervention.
Expected short-term rise in the use of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) to outsource high-volume legal work and gain access to innovative technologies that are not available in-house.
GenAI and its emerging use cases, which can automate high-volume, routine tasks and replicate human-like abilities to conduct data analysis, are accelerating legal work. This is leading to increased GenAI adoption for increased productivity, an enhanced employee experience, greater innovation and fewer risks.
Your in-house legal team can benefit from GenAI adoption in two primary ways:
Use GenAI-enabled technologies to accelerate legal work — for instance, by using natural language processing to streamline the legal research process, or by using GenAI to automate repetitive tasks such as drafting and reviewing contracts.
Integrate GenAI into existing legal technologies to augment their capabilities — for example, by using predictive and probabilistic risk analysis, which can assist in mitigating risk by raising red flags sooner and helping you predict the likelihood and frequency of a risk occurring.
Although using GenAI will enhance legal capabilities, it also comes with added risks. To mitigate these risks, avoid investing in premature GenAI capabilities and stay abreast of emerging data concerns related to quality and safety.
The contract life cycle management (CLM) market has been quick to respond to the hype around GenAI in legal technology. Although GenAI use cases in the CLM market are still new and can be considered immature, some may mature at a faster rate because of their low level of risk and perceived market acceptability.
The following are the five primary GenAI use cases:
Agreement summarization is a shortened overview of the key terms and conditions in the contract, provided in natural language so wider stakeholders and senior leadership can follow the contractual commitments without understanding legal terminologies. Because agreement summarization most often happens in the postsignature phase of the contract life cycle, it is widely accepted as being low risk — but the generated content must be thoroughly scrutinized by humans.
Clause translation — the ability to see or translate legal text into clear English — varies in the CLM market, but one way it’s deployed is by hovering over text or highlighting text within the contract and seeing it translated in either a text box above or a text panel beside the clause. This use case has the potential to alleviate the volume of simple ad hoc requests to the legal team.
Conversational AI/chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) and supported by GenAI can interact with users in natural language to help understand a contract, analyze and compare clauses, or search from a contract library. Chatbots can also help users do administrative tasks, such as changing access rights or workflows. This use case is immature but expected to be deployed more widely.
Clause/template creation — the ability to build out new legal clauses based on a natural language input — is a common use case associated with GenAI. However, this is an immature use case in the market today.
Precision/surgical redlining uses GenAI to help suggest edits to contract language during negotiations to bring agreements into compliance without ripping and replacing clauses. The expectation is that GenAI can read and understand the clauses and make minimal edits much like a legal professional does when redlining a contract to bring it closer to requirements in previous contracts and playbooks. This capability is one of the more complex use cases, is still immature and may take some time to permeate the market because of the perceived risk and the amount of training and tuning efforts required.
By 2027, 80% of vendors will incorporate GenAI platform capabilities into their governance, risk and compliance (GRC) technologies — legal technology solutions that support the risk management process — and by 2026, chief compliance and ethics officers (CCEOs) will increase investments in GRC tools by 50%.
Because the term “GRC” also refers to an operational strategy for IT risk professionals, a common misperception is that GRC tools are not designed to support ethics and compliance. Although many vendors establish themselves in the market to support IT and cyber risk, the market for GRC is broader than you might think.
GRC is not a single market but contains many products designed to support the needs of multiple functional leaders and assurance teams. Vendors often sell a single solution across risk owners in the organization commonly using the term “integrated risk management.” In reality, though, 85% of our clients who use GRC technology have multiple tools in place. To make the best GRC investment decisions, it’s critical to understand the market’s available product capabilities and use cases.
The GRC market is broad and fragmented and requires some skill to navigate, so it may be hard to decide what to invest in, but the core capabilities and potential benefits of GRC tools are well worth the effort. To make the most of the evaluation process, do the following:
Prioritize investments in GRC technology based on the most urgent use cases. Keep in mind that one tool cannot support all aspects of risk management to the full level of satisfaction of all users.
Scrutinize vendor RFP responses. When legal technology solutions fail to meet expectations or don’t have the capability promised, contractual remediation may be needed. Avoid this pitfall by ascertaining that the GRC vendor you’re considering can meet your organization’s needs.
Closely evaluate packages or modules from vendors known to specialize in one risk terrain, such as third-party risk management (TPRM), cyber or IT risk. Don’t assume these modules will deliver value without adequately comparing the modules’ features and your unique legal technology requirements.
Join your peers for the unveiling of the latest insights at Gartner conferences.
“Legal technology” refers to the operations technology products that enhance corporate in-house legal teams’ workflows. Products are sold as single solutions or integrated suites, often marketed as enterprise legal management technologies. The products most commonly provide e-billing and spend management; external matter management; intake, triage and service management; and workflow automation capabilities, among others.
More than 90% of legal departments foresee workloads increasing in the next two years. Legal technology is one way to manage that demand by optimizing workflows, costs and productivity.
A major challenge to implementing legal technology is lack of know-how. Legal leaders need to understand department needs and prioritize their tech investments, or risk overspending on legal technology solutions that don’t actually help the business.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Clients receive 24/7 access to proven management and technology research, expert advice, benchmarks, diagnostics and more. Fill out the form to connect with a representative and learn more.
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I have read, understood and accepted Gartner Separate Consent Letter , whereby I agree (1) to provide Gartner with my personal information, and understand that information will be transferred outside of mainland China and processed by Gartner group companies and other legitimate processing parties and (2) to be contacted by Gartner group companies via internet, mobile/telephone and email, for the purposes of sales, marketing and research.
By clicking the "Submit" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
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This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
or call
GenAI isn’t the only new technology on the legal department’s radar but is arguably the most disruptive. Explore the use cases.
By clicking the "Continue" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required.
By clicking the "Continue" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required.
Please provide the consent below
I have read, understood and accepted Gartner Separate Consent Letter , whereby I agree (1) to provide Gartner with my personal information, and understand that information will be transferred outside of mainland China and processed by Gartner group companies and other legitimate processing parties and (2) to be contacted by Gartner group companies via internet, mobile/telephone and email, for the purposes of sales, marketing and research.
By clicking the "Submit" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
By clicking the "Begin Download" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
By 2027, the global legal technology market will double in size because of GenAI — and legal leaders face growing pressure to respond. This research report provides insights and recommendations on:
Key trends to consider as you map out a legal technology strategy
The opportunities and risks inherent in GenAI-enabled technology solutions
How to reap the benefits of GenAI legal technology and avoid common pitfalls
Legal technology investments, including those in GenAI, must support business outcomes. Get to know the top GenAI use cases for legal operations and workflows.
Sixty-six percent of legal leaders report plans to accelerate their investments in legal technology as a cost-effective way to manage workloads amid rising budgetary limitations. The most effective legal technology solutions do more than save costs and improve automation; they maximize the value contribution of legal staff by allowing them to focus on high-priority tasks.
Increasingly, legal leaders are moving away from the traditional, siloed approach that focused on sourcing legal technology solutions solely for short-term task automation. To best equip your team, assess specific technology services or solutions based on their utility to in-house legal employees. This approach creates an “augmented legal workforce” in which technology investments complement and enhance employee capabilities to perform legal tasks. By 2026, 50% of office workers in global enterprises will be AI-augmented in one form or another, either to boost productivity or raise the quality of their work.
The following trends support the idea of an augmented legal workforce for in-house legal teams:
Increased use of generative AI (GenAI) to boost legal tasks such as conducting research, drafting and managing contracts, and streamlining intake and self-service systems.
Increased demand for self-service offerings to streamline legal request intake and provide automated guidance to access legal services, reducing the need for direct legal intervention.
Expected short-term rise in the use of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) to outsource high-volume legal work and gain access to innovative technologies that are not available in-house.
GenAI and its emerging use cases, which can automate high-volume, routine tasks and replicate human-like abilities to conduct data analysis, are accelerating legal work. This is leading to increased GenAI adoption for increased productivity, an enhanced employee experience, greater innovation and fewer risks.
Your in-house legal team can benefit from GenAI adoption in two primary ways:
Use GenAI-enabled technologies to accelerate legal work — for instance, by using natural language processing to streamline the legal research process, or by using GenAI to automate repetitive tasks such as drafting and reviewing contracts.
Integrate GenAI into existing legal technologies to augment their capabilities — for example, by using predictive and probabilistic risk analysis, which can assist in mitigating risk by raising red flags sooner and helping you predict the likelihood and frequency of a risk occurring.
Although using GenAI will enhance legal capabilities, it also comes with added risks. To mitigate these risks, avoid investing in premature GenAI capabilities and stay abreast of emerging data concerns related to quality and safety.
The contract life cycle management (CLM) market has been quick to respond to the hype around GenAI in legal technology. Although GenAI use cases in the CLM market are still new and can be considered immature, some may mature at a faster rate because of their low level of risk and perceived market acceptability.
The following are the five primary GenAI use cases:
Agreement summarization is a shortened overview of the key terms and conditions in the contract, provided in natural language so wider stakeholders and senior leadership can follow the contractual commitments without understanding legal terminologies. Because agreement summarization most often happens in the postsignature phase of the contract life cycle, it is widely accepted as being low risk — but the generated content must be thoroughly scrutinized by humans.
Clause translation — the ability to see or translate legal text into clear English — varies in the CLM market, but one way it’s deployed is by hovering over text or highlighting text within the contract and seeing it translated in either a text box above or a text panel beside the clause. This use case has the potential to alleviate the volume of simple ad hoc requests to the legal team.
Conversational AI/chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) and supported by GenAI can interact with users in natural language to help understand a contract, analyze and compare clauses, or search from a contract library. Chatbots can also help users do administrative tasks, such as changing access rights or workflows. This use case is immature but expected to be deployed more widely.
Clause/template creation — the ability to build out new legal clauses based on a natural language input — is a common use case associated with GenAI. However, this is an immature use case in the market today.
Precision/surgical redlining uses GenAI to help suggest edits to contract language during negotiations to bring agreements into compliance without ripping and replacing clauses. The expectation is that GenAI can read and understand the clauses and make minimal edits much like a legal professional does when redlining a contract to bring it closer to requirements in previous contracts and playbooks. This capability is one of the more complex use cases, is still immature and may take some time to permeate the market because of the perceived risk and the amount of training and tuning efforts required.
By 2027, 80% of vendors will incorporate GenAI platform capabilities into their governance, risk and compliance (GRC) technologies — legal technology solutions that support the risk management process — and by 2026, chief compliance and ethics officers (CCEOs) will increase investments in GRC tools by 50%.
Because the term “GRC” also refers to an operational strategy for IT risk professionals, a common misperception is that GRC tools are not designed to support ethics and compliance. Although many vendors establish themselves in the market to support IT and cyber risk, the market for GRC is broader than you might think.
GRC is not a single market but contains many products designed to support the needs of multiple functional leaders and assurance teams. Vendors often sell a single solution across risk owners in the organization commonly using the term “integrated risk management.” In reality, though, 85% of our clients who use GRC technology have multiple tools in place. To make the best GRC investment decisions, it’s critical to understand the market’s available product capabilities and use cases.
The GRC market is broad and fragmented and requires some skill to navigate, so it may be hard to decide what to invest in, but the core capabilities and potential benefits of GRC tools are well worth the effort. To make the most of the evaluation process, do the following:
Prioritize investments in GRC technology based on the most urgent use cases. Keep in mind that one tool cannot support all aspects of risk management to the full level of satisfaction of all users.
Scrutinize vendor RFP responses. When legal technology solutions fail to meet expectations or don’t have the capability promised, contractual remediation may be needed. Avoid this pitfall by ascertaining that the GRC vendor you’re considering can meet your organization’s needs.
Closely evaluate packages or modules from vendors known to specialize in one risk terrain, such as third-party risk management (TPRM), cyber or IT risk. Don’t assume these modules will deliver value without adequately comparing the modules’ features and your unique legal technology requirements.
Join your peers for the unveiling of the latest insights at Gartner conferences.
“Legal technology” refers to the operations technology products that enhance corporate in-house legal teams’ workflows. Products are sold as single solutions or integrated suites, often marketed as enterprise legal management technologies. The products most commonly provide e-billing and spend management; external matter management; intake, triage and service management; and workflow automation capabilities, among others.
More than 90% of legal departments foresee workloads increasing in the next two years. Legal technology is one way to manage that demand by optimizing workflows, costs and productivity.
A major challenge to implementing legal technology is lack of know-how. Legal leaders need to understand department needs and prioritize their tech investments, or risk overspending on legal technology solutions that don’t actually help the business.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Clients receive 24/7 access to proven management and technology research, expert advice, benchmarks, diagnostics and more. Fill out the form to connect with a representative and learn more.
8 a.m. – 7 p.m. ET
8 a.m. – 5 p.m. GMT
Monday through Friday
Please provide the consent below
I have read, understood and accepted Gartner Separate Consent Letter , whereby I agree (1) to provide Gartner with my personal information, and understand that information will be transferred outside of mainland China and processed by Gartner group companies and other legitimate processing parties and (2) to be contacted by Gartner group companies via internet, mobile/telephone and email, for the purposes of sales, marketing and research.
By clicking the "Submit" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
By clicking the "" button, you are agreeing to the Gartner Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
