Legal IT Insider’s editor-in-chief sat down with Lawfront’s CIO Tony McKenna to reflect on 2025, see whether last year’s predictions came true, and make some new predictions for 2026.
2025 has seen a surge in legal technology adoption, particularly Microsoft Copilot, after licensing restrictions were eased. McKenna noted a shift towards further leveraging the Microsoft stack and the firm has also done a lot of work with GenAI platform Jylo, with McKenna noting that with other, big cathedral GenAI solutions in the market it is difficult to show a case for investment.
There has been a notable general market shift towards building proprietary AI tools this year, and McKenna noted the need to bear in mind that these systems need to be supported and invested in long term, which can be a challenge. He instead advocates partnering with external providers who make the effort to understand your business challenges and build and support great technology.
This was a great year for the legal technology community, including a fantastic year for ILTA (with its conferences in Washington and London) and events such as Legal IT Insider’s 30th anniversary.
Next year we will see a continued focus on Microsoft, including SharePoint and the possibilities that full integration brings in terms of AI. “Hold on to your hats, it’s going to be fast, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it!” he says. Listen or watch the conversation using the links below.
You can listen to Tony’s 2024/25 Reflections and Predictions podcast from last year here: https://legaltechnology.com/2024/12/24/tony-mckenna-hk-2024-was-a-year-of-two-halves-plus-what-is-on-the-agenda-for-2025/
The post 2025/26 Reflections & Predictions: Tony McKenna, Lawfront – A significant increase in GenAI adoption appeared first on Legal IT Insider.