Edgar Santos, Legal Tech Officer, Jayaraman Law, LLC
Reflecting on Europe’s largest and most well-attended tech transformation conference, the Jayaraman Law team is digesting and processing the ideas brought forward over the latest conversations occurring in the legal tech world. For our team, staying up to date with legal tech is essential; it is the driving force ensuring we bring you, our client, the most bespoke and current service we possibly can.
A big theme this year followed the natural progression in the conversation of such a developing topic: What’s next?
Reflections from LegalTechTalk 2026:
Legal tech doesn’t stand still… and neither do we! As a team committed to delivering the most considered, current service possible, attending one of the world’s largest legal tech transformation conferences a second year in a row is essential for us. This year’s LegalTechTalk left us with plenty to think about, and we’re excited to share what struck us most.
From a market perspective, the conversation has matured. The industry has moved past the initial rush of AI-powered tools and is now asking harder, more structural questions: what actually lasts and what is already obsolete? These questions come with a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the sustainability and longevity of AI, a theme I’d like to invite you to explore in this article.
Before diving into that, it’s worth setting the scene. Greeted by a state-of-the-art conference hall spread across four floors, LTT boasted an array of talks, workshops, roundtables and networking spaces that allowed participants to engage directly with leading experts in AI and innovation.
It was in between these conversations that we heard about a trending framework regarding a pacing mismatch in the industry, which comes to a striking conclusion: most of what the tech industry is currently building is already under threat. In this framework, developed originally by Helen Fan, we can observe the different levels of legal tech tools and how they fit into this rapid pace of change:
Level 1 consists of simple AI chat tools for contract review or research. These were commoditised almost overnight once Anthropic’s legal plugin reached the majority of the desktop market.
Level 2 features workflow integrations like Word add-ins, which are themselves commoditizing fast as foundation models ship the same features natively.
Level 3 involves proprietary data that compounds from client usage, growing on the inputs it is fed. These systems offer a real but temporary usage advantage.
Level 4 is where a tool becomes a system of record – like Clio or MyCase. This remains the strongest moat for the industry today, protected by high switching costs and deep operational gravity.
But Fan’s sharpest point is that all four are pre-AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) strategies. They erode as AI capability improves, meaning they will inevitably be phased out as the timeline moves forward.
This is where Level 5 comes in, answering the question of “what next?” while highlighting the danger for a lot of contemporary legal tech. The firms best placed to survive are those that stop focusing on simply stacking AI-powered SaaS systems on top of one another. Instead, the focus must shift to building coherent ecosystems within the law firms themselves, letting the firm’s unique practice inform how those tools are used.
The logic is simple. Legal services run on trust and clients pay because they cannot fully evaluate the work themselves thus relying on the accountability and judgment of someone willing to be answerable when things go wrong. Building out a tech stack that treats AI systems as the final insurance removes the human element. Ultimately, attorneys themselves are where clients turn for that ultimate accountability, and building a firm around that structural difference is something that does not erode with technological capability.
At Jayaraman Law, we believe tech works best when it frees our attorneys and paralegals to focus on what matters most: judgment, nuance, relationships and accountability. The firms that will serve clients best are not those with the most tools, but those who have thought hardest about which tools truly earn their place.
We were super grateful to be invited to the Legal Tech Talk this year and can’t wait to keep you updated on all the latest happening in this exciting industry.
Jayaraman Law
Latest posts by Jayaraman Law (see all)
- Beyond the Prompt: Using AI with Purpose and Professional Judgment - August 27, 2026
