Letter from the CEO
This year’s trends report arrives at an important moment for our industry. The rapid rise of AI has pushed legal teams across law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies to rethink how work gets done — not only what AI can do, but how it should be applied, governed, and adopted. Amid that change, one principle has guided our decisions at NetDocuments: the DMS must now function as the strategic core of modern legal operations. For years, document management focused on storing and organizing information. Today, it must do much more. It must activate your knowledge, support intelligent workflows, and serve as the secure environment where AI can work reliably and responsibly. That shift is well underway, and we are investing heavily to ensure the NetDocuments platform provides the intelligence, extensibility, and governance that legal teams require. Our focus is not on adding complexity — it’s on reducing it. We believe AI should support professionals inside the tools and workflows they already use, not force them to learn new interfaces or juggle a growing collection of point solutions. This is why we continue to embed ambient intelligence directly into the platform, and why we built ndConnect: to give organizations access to secure, specialized Legal AI solutions while keeping NetDocuments as the trusted backbone where work, permissions, and security remain consistent. But as many teams experienced over the last year, technology alone doesn’t drive impact — adoption does. We are equally committed to helping customers build the readiness, structure, and change management capabilities needed to benefit from AI in meaningful ways. Our mission has always been to help legal professionals do their best work. Today, that means supporting not only the technology behind that work, but the human and operational practices that bring it to life. In the pages that follow, you’ll see six trends shaping the next phase of legal innovation. The “In Practice” examples within each one highlight what’s possible right now — from intelligent assistants and connected workflows to agentic AI and self-organizing knowledge. My hope is that they spark ideas for how your firm, department, or agency can build on what’s working today and prepare for what’s next. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership. Together, we are shaping the future of legal work with purpose, responsibility, and innovation at the core and helping legal professionals make the most of every moment.
Sincerely,
Josh Baxter Chief Executive Officer NetDocuments
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NetDocuments | 2026 Legal Tech Trends
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