In the Know: Top 5 Legal Technology Trends for the 2020s

Technology is changing more rapidly than ever impacting our work, and personal lives. In the previous decade, technologies we could never imagine have become interwoven in all aspects of our lives. With technology playing such a huge role, it is important for legal marketers to be familiar with technology trends to understand the potential impact on our clients and law firm. This allows us to keep our attorneys informed so they can help their clients understand the potential impact on their company. Before we explore the top 5 legal technology trends, let's reflect on several technologies the 2010s brought us. Some of the technologies in these devices are included in my top 5.

Smart Home Technology

With the release of the Nest thermostat, we were introduced to Smart home technology which may also be termed home automation. Smart home technology allows users to remotely control and monitor their connected home devices from Smart home apps, smartphones, or other networked devices whether they are home or away. These connected devices are the Internet of Things (IoT). This technology automates your ability to control items around the house from window shades to bird feeders. Smart home technology is now being used to create Smart Cities where systems are monitored to more efficiently run the cities and save money.

Virtual Assistant

We were introduced in 2015 to Amazon Alexa. Amazon's Alexa uses natural language generation and processing, and machine learning, forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to operate and learn over time. Alexa is capable of voice interaction, music playlists, making-to-do list and many other skills, including Jeopardy. As of April 2019, Amazon had 90,000+ skills Alexa could perform. Amazon Alexa also has a paid subscription service (Alexa for Business) which allows an employee to use Alexa as their intelligent assistant. In 2018, Amazon launched Alexa for Hospitality announcing Marriott as its launch partner. Legal industry vendors such as Thomson Reuters Elite and Case.one have integrated products with Alexa.

Wearable Technology

Fitbit and Apple watch introduced us to wearable technology to provide real-time insights, statistics, and help us make informed life style choices. Wearable technology has been used in professional sports to monitor and provide real-time feedback for athletes on their energy expenditure and movement pattern. For example, thanks to a tiny chip inside the shoulder pads of Dallas Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott, we learned that he ran 21.27 miles per hour on a 44-yard run in a playoff against the Giants.

Top Five Legal Tech Trends

1. Quantum Computing

In my opinion, this will be the most disruptive technology of this decade. Imagine quantum computers that could:

• Make U.S. stealth technology obsolete;
• Hack financial institution and government infrastructure firewalls; and
• Able to break blockchain encryption.

What is quantum computing? A quantum computer is any device that uses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations. Regular computers use binary units called bits, which represent one of two possible states: 0 or 1. Quantum computers rely on quantum bits (qbits) which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time. This allows them to perform certain tasks much faster than regular computers. In 2019, Google's Sycamore quantum processor completed a task in 200 seconds that Goggle estimated would take 10,000 years for 100,000 conventional computers running the fastest algorithms currently known.