Trust, Focus and Impact: Marketing & PR Predictions for 2026

Despite widespread investment into AI across the legal industry, just a small group of law firms are consistently realizing measurable returns in operational speed, financial visibility and revenue performance, according to a new report from Law.com and legal industry technology provider Elite.

Most firms are aiming their newest tools at the work they already do — pouring their most powerful technology into running the same tasks a little faster. But when everyone automates the same tasks at once, no one pulls ahead. That reaches the future a little faster while leaving a firm’s largest opportunity untouched — and that opportunity isn’t doing more of the existing work, but transforming how the high-value work gets done.

AI is becoming both an accelerant and a distraction for cybersecurity. In many respects, AI is acting as a stress test for existing security operations by exposing how difficult many organizations still find it to enforce basic controls consistently at scale.