AUTHOR: Jonny Jackson
DATE: 8 July 2025
Last week’s LegalTechTalk in London was a fascinating glimpse into where our industry finds itself right now, and honestly, it’s quite different from where we were even two years ago. The conversation around AI has evolved dramatically – we’ve moved well beyond the breathless excitement of “look what ChatGPT can do!” to something far more interesting, focused and pragmatic.
The panels and networking conversations revealed a legal tech landscape that’s finally maturing beyond the hype cycle – procurement teams are getting smarter about evaluating AI tools and legal operations directors are thinking more strategically about integrations.
Perhaps most importantly, we at Augmetec are seeing real urgency around these issues. The volume and complexity of matters continues to grow, regulatory scrutiny is intensifying, and budgets remain constrained. The pain points are increasing – legal teams can’t afford to get this wrong, and that’s creating genuine demand for solutions that actually work rather than just sound impressive in demos.
Here are some of our main reflections from the event.
Beyond bolting AI onto old processes
The smartest firms and in-house legal teams are thinking about workflow redesign rather than just workflow automation. Instead of asking “where can we squeeze AI into our existing processes?”, they’re asking “if we were building our processes from scratch today, what would it look like?”
It’s a subtle but crucial distinction. The organisations getting the most value aren’t just adding another tool to their already cluttered tech stack: they’re rethinking the fundamentals of how investigations work in an age where we can actually make sense of massive volumes of data intelligently.
The “AI” buzzword is no longer sufficient – we’re seeing a market shift to showcase precise, defined use of AI to provide a more intelligent, accurate and usable platform.
The conversations we had with key stakeholders kept coming back to two requirements:
- Unified data – where all relevant evidence, from emails to chat logs to structured records, can be accessed, cross-referenced and analysed centrally in context, without duplication or risk of error.
- Unified processes – where the entire investigative lifecycle, from triage through review to reporting, is handled in a single, streamlined system.
These foundations reduce risk, improve collaboration, and make it far easier to demonstrate compliance and integrity when under scrutiny.
The economics are shifting
Technology is starting to change the basic economics of legal work. Law firms are finding they can take on smaller investigations because the efficiency gains make them profitable. For in-house legal teams, it’s even more acute: the volume and complexity of internal investigations just keeps growing, but budgets certainly aren’t keeping pace.
We spoke to one general counsel who told us they’re seeing twice as many investigations as they were three years ago, driven by everything from regulatory scrutiny to whistleblower activity. Meanwhile, their team hasn’t grown and external counsel rates have only gone up. Technology isn’t a nice-to-have in that context; it’s existential.
The integration imperative
Perhaps the biggest pain point we heard about was system fragmentation. You’ve got your intake tool, your document collection platform, your review system, your reporting dashboard: each with its own quirks and learning curve. The constant switching between systems makes it incredibly difficult to maintain a coherent view of an investigation as it progresses.
Beyond the inefficiency, there’s a real risk factor here. Important context gets lost when you’re constantly moving between platforms. Insights don’t connect, and it’s exhausting for the people doing the work.
The best firms and in-house legal teams are increasingly looking for platforms that can handle the entire investigative lifecycle in one place. Not because they’re lazy, but because fragmentation is expensive and risky.
AI with guardrails
The other major theme was governance and accountability. With the EU AI Act now in force, there’s a real shift in how legal teams think about AI tools. The legal profession has always been cautious about new technology, and rightly so. But what we’re seeing now is a more sophisticated approach to AI evaluation, with a focus on transparency, data handling, and auditability.
Looking ahead
Investigations aren’t going away: if anything, they’re becoming more central to how organisations manage risk and maintain regulatory compliance.
For all these reasons, at Augmetec, we’re building LEIAA: a security-first, end-to-end investigations platform that brings the entire investigation workflow into one single platform, such that no piece of information is left behind, resulting in better investigations at lower cost. From day 1, our philosophy has been to bring real change to investigations through innovative data technology, to solve focused pain points and provide genuine value add to our users, with no gimmicks.
Now, it’s about choosing the right partners to help you get there.
