Capitalizing on Momentum

We are several weeks removed from a record-setting ILTACON 2025, the annual educational conference and expo produced by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA). 2025 marked the 45th year that legal IT professionals convened to network, learn, educate, and showcase the latest developments in legal tech. While the Actionstep team can’t claim four decades of attendance, we did pay attention to what ‘moved the needle’ this year and how it impacts our legal community. Here are our top five prevalent themes:

Do believe the hype… But demand receipts

With a record attendance of over 4,600 attendees, the dominant theme was no longer merely demonstrating what AI can do but proving its tangible value through outcomes. We’ve gone from experimental AI pilots and proof of concepts to the practical, strategic implementation of AI agents. While the number of announcements showcasing new AI capabilities dominated the ILTACON airwaves, several vendors and ILTA members shared their AI use cases and success stories. The value of showing and sharing ‘rubber meets the road’ scenarios in the real legal world can’t be understated.

Without a doubt, the breakout star of ILTACON 2025 was agentic AI, which refers to integrated AI systems that autonomously manage multi-step legal workflows, marking the next phase of practical AI applications in the legal field. Ultimate agentic AI success will depend on law firms’ ability to integrate AI tools and capabilities seamlessly into existing workflows and embed within document management systems (DMS) and legal practice management platforms (LPMP), rather than requiring lawyers to open new applications and disrupt their workflow. Both the DMS and LPMP are ideally suited (aka they are the Knowledge Management hub for firms’ content, expertise, and intelligence) for bringing AI to your content, versus the other way around.

Taking a step back will put you two steps forward.

As reiterated during numerous conference sessions, the “garbage in, garbage out’ adage is all too real when it comes to producing accurate, reliable, and actionable results with AI. Make an extra effort to get your data house in order before investing in pricey and ‘data sensitive’ AI tools. Again, the DMS, as the central hub for firm content and expertise, provides an ideal starting point.

With the legal AI gold rush in full effect, not everything that glitters is gold. While the pressure to deliver on AI’s promise as quickly as possible is tremendous, the responsibility to produce AI that is safe, secure, reliable, and, just as importantly, aligned with firm challenges to solve specific problems is greater. With that in mind, Actionstep recently established a dedicated AI Center of Excellence, incorporating AI expertise, AI best practices for law firm management, and a future-focused roadmap powered by AI. Driven by direct law firm feedback and insights from surveying the mid-sized market, this roadmap meets firms where they are in relation to AI and how AI can help them improve the way they manage and run their firms.

Actionstep’s Chief Product Officer, Triona Buckley, noted that while the market is saturated with standalone GenAI tools focused on streamlining content production and review tasks, AI focused on supporting the management, operations, and business of midsize law is only just now emerging. “Our plans for incorporating AI functionality into our platform will help legal and management staff leverage AI securely and seamlessly to manage both the business and legal side of law firms,” Buckley shared. “Taking a step back before jumping into the AI fray by spending extra time with customers to understand their AI journey truly, and adding AI capabilities that address their priorities, will pay off in a big way.”

Interested in more specifics about Actionstep’s AI Center of Excellence and how midsize law firms are participating… Check out Triona’s exclusive ILTACON Live podcast with legal luminary Bob Ambrogi.

Talent wars and evolving legal roles

Throughout the conference, we heard from CEOs and other law firm leaders who are challenged with finding adequate AI and software development talent. Beyond finding and retaining team members, firms are adapting to a changing landscape of legal roles. Legal operations and knowledge management teams are moving from support functions to central positions in technology strategy, establishing AI governance and broader ‘rules of engagement,’ and creating business cases for AI investment. As identified in Actionstep’s latest Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report, it’s also critical to give existing staff the systems, workflows, and flexibility they need to reduce waste, streamline tasks, and remove friction. Firm leadership is more motivated than ever to find new opportunities to automate routine steps, trigger timely reminders, and build in the kind of flexibility that allows staff to thrive, not just survive.

Integrating ecosystems

In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. In the world of technology use and adoption, it involves the integration and the ability to connect systems, aggregate disparate data sources, and facilitate workflows. Actionstep’s recent mid-market reports reiterate this reality, as did ILTACON. The most powerful agentic AI solutions showcased were not standalone tools but systems that integrate deeply with other applications, including document management systems, email, and legal research platforms.

Insanity: repeating the same missteps over and over again

Yes, we are talking about training users so they can make the most out of the tools the firm has invested in. Understanding tools, workflows, and ‘DIY’ approaches to AI applications is critical when it comes to getting the most out of legal technology. While IT might view onboarding new technology, such as AI, as the end of the journey, we see it as one stop in a longer journey, which will always come down to people feeling comfortable with new technology tools. Without proper training, users may over-reliance on the technology or make critical errors by failing to verify outputs. Now is the time to increase tech savviness via training and expert guidance.

Speaking on behalf of Actionstep, while we are excited about ILTACON 2026, we will not wait until then to practice what we preach when it comes to delivering practical AI for the midsize law firm market, helping law firms make the most out of their tech investment, offering training that moves the tech adoption needle, and addressing firm needs for integrated solutions within a comprehensive practice management platform powered by AI workflows.