At the end of ILTACON 2025, I reached out to many of the people I met with for their observations about the conference and covered some of them Tuesday and yesterday. Here’s part three of ILTACON 2025 crowdsourced observations!

FYI, I’m publishing their crowdsourced ILTACON 2025 observations in the order they provided them to me and splitting them over three posts. So, here’s part three of ILTACON 2025 crowdsourced observations!

ILTACON 2025 felt less like a legaltech conference and more like standing in the eye of a storm, faced with an unrelenting tidal wave of information, AI hype, and legal tech disruption colliding with a world already teetering on instability. Between the promise of innovation, the periodic prevalence of snake oil, and the looming risk of unraveling, it was hard not to feel both awe and dread at what comes next. Nicole Black, Principal Legal Insight Strategist, 8am

My biggest ILTACON takeaway – integrations are essential in order to get value from AI litigation tools in order to verify accuracy. I was thrilled to hear the dramatic reactions from customers in response to Clearbrief’s announcement of its integration with Reveal and enhancements to its Relativity integration. When litigators are writing in Word with Clearbrief, they can now see the tags and insights from the ediscovery phase of the case so that no details are lost in the transition to the writing process. And word of mouth had spread about our cite-checking tools that check over citations to both law AND facts – as the recent cases even from the past week revealed hallucinated fact cites are a major risk for firms. Jacqueline Schafer, Founder & CEO, Clearbrief.ai

I continue to feel the optimism around a transformative time in the legal technology field, especially as users really experience and practice with AI either personally or professionally.  The practical experience is so important in understanding value but also building sustainable agentic platforms.  And as always it was good to catch up with my friends and colleagues at ILTACON. Stephen P. Dooley, Director of Electronic Discovery and Litigation Support, Sullivan & Cromwell

During ILTACON 2025, I saw attendees focusing more on outcomes and how to implement AI and Generative AI into their practice, and less so on whether the AI works. I think it demonstrates how quickly AI is evolving and gaining acceptance, and law firms and corporations working to ensure that they stay at the forefront. Like many, I also saw a new buzzword –agentic AI– and while it’s clear that everyone defines agentic AI differently, the excitement around its ability to make independent decisions towards a stated goal (as opposed to optimizing specific tasks) makes me eager to see what progress will look like at next year’s conference. James Park, AI Consulting Director, DISCO

This year I saw a real transition from the hype surrounding AI to its practical implementation. The adoption rate we’re currently seeing across the industry is incredible, and it’s been particularly notable to see how corporate legal teams are increasingly pushing their firms to adopt. I’m also starting to see more firms start to establish AI committees to help clients get the most out of the technology and overcome very real roadblocks. It’s more important than ever for legal professionals to increase their knowledge around how these tools can be safely used to save costs, increase productivity, and improve workflows. Alisa McLellan, Vice President, Professional Services, DISCO

ILTACON 2025 felt like a reality check. Everyone’s experimenting with AI, but the real wins will come from tools that make accuracy, security, and defensibility easy. For small firms, it’s the great equalizer. For everyone else, it’s time to let cost and clarity do the sorting. Sergey Demyanov, CEO & Founder, Beagle

National Harbor is a good vibe, easy to navigate ‘community’ and nicely sets the scene for the most important legal tech conference. Literally, a 5-star buffet of all the legal tech content, meetings, briefings, introductions, reunions, après activities, and critical thinking you could possibly handle. Jobst Elster, Head of Content & Legal Market Strategy, InsideLegal

ILTACON 2025 brought together legal and tech professionals who were motivated to discuss the defensibility of generative AI solutions. During the Relativity Master Class, panelists and attendees alike explored how we can blaze the trail to wider industry acceptance through quantitative and qualitative validation and ultimately thrive in the new era of AI. ILTACON 2025 proved to be another important industry conference dedicated to driving education and discussion around the expanding roles of legal professionals today. Cristin K. Traylor, Senior Director, AI Transformation & Law Firm Strategy, Relativity

Corporate Legal Day at ILTACON brought together tech-forward pros to swap insights on building a killer tech stack – and even teamed up with the law firm Chief Innovations Officer group to explore (or maybe plot) how the two constituencies can collaborate optimally to lead to faster tech advancement. Marla Crawford, General Counsel, Cimplifi

ILTACON has always been my favorite legal conference for three main reasons which all revolve around people: peer-led education, great networking and a focus on all aspects of law firm technology. ILTACON25 didn’t disappoint in any of those areas with 4,600 attendees and wide-ranging discussions of how technology, especially AI, can make firms more efficient and productive. My only reservation was best expressed by Bob Ambrogi in his column on the show: how can we be sure that all this exciting innovation makes its way to the small firms and solo practitioners who constitute 70% of the attorneys in the US? Tom O’Connor, Director, Gulf Coast Legal Tech Center

ILTACON 2025 was a dynamic blend of education and relationship-building, with attendees showing strong interest in practical technology solutions and in-person networking. Array was even highlighted on LinkedIn for having some of the best swag at the conference, and we were honored to be recognized by our peers for the hard work that went into making the event a success. Julia Helmer, JD, Director, Client Solutions, Array

Biggest Takeaway from ILTA 2025 is” People Process and Technology”. The halls were filled with Fantastic People from All Around the World moving and shaking to eagerly to share their thoughts on the Latest Technology, mostly AI 0f course, and to Network, Mingle and Collaborate on new processes to shape our rapidly evolving world. It was Truly a Great Time Had By All!!! Bradley Wolf, Managing Partner, Complete Legal

Knowledge management teams are leveraging GenAI to improve efficiencies and deliver value to their law firms. In contrast, litigation support teams have not yet experienced the same consistent results or return on investment with GenAI in eDiscovery platforms. The turning point indicating consistent ROI is on the horizon, thanks to ongoing investment by eDiscovery technology companies to enhance their GenAI applications and the dedication of legal technology professionals to learning and using GenAI to create defensible and cost-effective review workflows. Matt Mahon, CEDS, IGP, VP, Customer Experience, Level Legal

It’s highly unlikely any legal professional ever thinks, “You know, I think I’ll go file a fake case citation with the court today,” yet these filings continue. At this year’s ILTACON E-Discovery and Litigation Support Roundtable, one important point was that legal teams often face difficult deadlines and tight budgets, and generative AI may be seen as a type of Staples Easy Button rather than a deliberate attempt at nefarious conduct. Nevertheless, the Easy Button practice of law can lead to serious sanctions. The good news is that generative AI is arguably far superior to its technological predecessors in validation, making it a very valuable tool in the litigator’s toolbox. David Horrigan, Discovery Counsel & Legal Education Director, Relativity

There’s part three of ILTACON 2025 crowdsourced observations – the final part! Thanks to all who crowdsourced ILTACON 2025 observations for me – you saved me writing three posts this week! 😀

So, what do you think? Did you attend ILTACON 2025? If so, feel free to comment with your own observations below! And please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.