Secretariat is proud to be sponsoring the ACEDS Third Annual Artificial Intelligence Survey. This represents a unique opportunity to assess the state of AI adoption in the legal industry and identify both opportunities and obstacles for the road ahead. With each passing year, this survey has provided invaluable guidance for legal professionals navigating a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

We invite you to reflect on your own experiences. What changes have you observed in the use of AI in e-discovery and document review? Have you used GenAI for your work and how do you think GenAI will shape the future of our industry? Join the conversation and to share your thoughts as we uncover the latest insights.

In this survey we will be examining the role of AI in e-discovery, document review, and investigations, including the growing impact of Generative AI (GenAI). Previous surveys have provided meaningful insights into AI adoption, and we look forward to discovering what new trends come out of this year’s findings.

What Will the 2025 Survey Uncover? 

With these historical insights in mind, the forthcoming 2025 survey promises to shed light on new and evolving trends in AI’s role in e-discovery, document review and investigations, including: 

• How is GenAI Reshaping eDiscovery and document review? How quickly is GenAI being adopted for legal work? What are the most commonly used applications? Will GenAI’s ability to predict document characteristics be adopted for responsive and privileged document review? How will concerns over AI hallucinations be addressed?
• What Role Does AI Play in Investigations? AI has become a powerful tool for uncovering critical evidence in investigations, enabling faster review and identification of key patterns within vast datasets. How are law firms and investigators leveraging AI to enhance their work, and what challenges are they encountering along the way? 
• Are ESI Agreements Improving? Have the issues identified in previous surveys around poorly drafted ESI agreements been addressed, or do they persist as a common pain point? If progress has been made, what best practices are driving this improvement? 
• Are Corporations Closing the AI Gap? Will this year’s survey reveal that corporate legal departments have made strides in adopting AI tools, narrowing the gap with law firms? What strategies have proven most effective in helping corporations embrace AI, and where do challenges remain? 

Previous surveys uncovered unexpected issues and insights including: 

Trends from Previous Surveys

ESI Agreements Causing Downstream Issues

A troubling pattern of poorly constructed Electronically Stored Information (ESI) agreements came out in both the 2023 and 2024 surveys. These agreements have often led to significant downstream issues, including not foreseeing future data types and by increasing costs by agreeing to restrictive document review protocols. The findings emphasized the need for more careful negotiation and drafting of ESI protocols to minimize complications and disputes later in discovery. 

Law Firms Adopting AI Faster than Corporations

Last year’s survey found that law firms were using AI for discovery activities at much faster rates than corporations. The finding was surprising but the focus groups we conducted after completing previous surveys gave us some unique insights, including the explosion of data and new data types being generated because of the Pandemic. This gap raised important questions about how in-house legal departments could better leverage AI to streamline processes and reduce reliance on outside counsel. 

2023 Report

“Over 80% of survey respondents [in 2023] said they had used AIML in document review in the last twelve months…and there was consensus that the technology worked and saved money…”

2024 Report

“Corporations are less involved in AI e-discovery activities…Law firms are overwhelmed with the amount and complexity of new data [and] they embrace AI in e-discovery…”