October 27, 2026
Generative AI is spreading through eDiscovery faster than the rules for using it.
In ComplexDiscovery’s 1H 2026 survey, 69 percent of respondents said they are deploying generative AI. Only 14 percent described AI rules they actually put into practice and review. The panel was small, 49 people, and those were two separate questions, so this is a signal, not a measurement.
A second survey points the same way. In eDiscovery Today’s 2026 State of the Industry Report, lack of eDiscovery competence ranked as the field’s top problem for the sixth year in a row.
This shows up in disputes. Some discovery fights are not about the facts of the case. They are about whether the other side searched properly. Search terms and custodian lists leave a trail both sides can point to. An AI review step leaves a trail only if someone decided ahead of time what to record.
Without that trail, there is less to point to. And the parties usually still have the rest of the case to get through together.
The tools are moving faster than the habits around them.
Sources
ComplexDiscovery OÜ, 1H 2026 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, published July 9, 2026 (49 respondents, self-selected).
eDiscovery Today, 2026 State of the Industry Report, released February 10, 2026.
Ariadne Latorre is a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator and a software engineer. She mediates business and commercial, insurance and risk allocation, LegalTech and information governance, HOA and community, and court-ordered matters, in English and Spanish, in Miami and virtually worldwide.