Artificial Intelligence

The AI hype cycle has a name for lack of ROI — the trough of disillusionment, where inflated expectations meet unrealized results. But the gap between what was spent and what can be shown is not a technology problem. The technology works. The failure is operational.

Some AI features are exciting to build and easy to market, but the fact that a feature is technically possible does not mean it is currently safe to deploy at scale, particularly when client confidentiality and firm liability are on the line.

AI agents will not eliminate the need for court reporters, videographers, interpreters, production specialists or litigation support teams. They will, however, enhance how those professionals spend their time and how effectively information moves around them.

How can legal teams move fast, reduce costs, and handle greater volumes of information? AI has rapidly become the de facto answer. But beneath the enthusiasm for AI, how are practitioners actually using AI-driven tools — and what are they learning as adoption shifts from experimentation to daily operations?

AI in patent prosecution is quickly becoming common across the industry. As AI capabilities will continue to evolve, new labels will almost certainly replace today’s “AI-enabled” and “AI-native” marketing language. Asking thoughtful questions about how AI is built into the entire process will provide far more insight.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act’s latest transparency and enforcement provisions are set to extend regulatory scrutiny far beyond Europe, requiring any company whose AI systems or outputs reach EU users — including Big Tech and multinationals — to meet its rules.

Agentic AI introduces risks that are novel and complex, but the most effective response is a familiar one. Zero Trust answers the problem of when an AI agent misfires on its own by constraining what an agent can do rather than betting on how it will behave.

California is betting that it can accelerate AI adoption by acting as a demanding, trusted buyer, and that the governance evidence it extracts through procurement can become infrastructure the rest of the market reuses.