When I look back over my career—first as a lawyer, then as a professor, engineer, and entrepreneur—I often compare the legal technology landscape to a construction site I once managed in tough Brooklyn. At first you clear the rubble. Then you build strong foundations. And finally, you raise structures that stand for decades. Today, I’m writing about how artificial intelligence is raising a new structure in litigation support, a framework companies must grasp if they want to stay ahead.
A new frontier in litigation: AI-powered litigation support solutions
The phrase “litigation support” is no longer about just e-discovery and document review. With generative AI, advanced analytics, and cloudnative systems, firms are deploying litigation support solutions that anticipate, automate, and augment key legal workflows. According to PwC, 49 % of technology leaders say AI is now “fully integrated” into business strategy. (PwC) That means litigation teams who still rely on manual review risk being left behind.
Why this matters in the business engineering of law firms
In the consulting world of my firm, Cowan Consulting, LC, which bridges business engineering and litigation support, I’ve observed that AI-powered tools are shifting value from time-spent to intelligence-deployed. When you treat litigation support like a business-engineering problem rather than a legal-admin one, you begin re-imagining workflows: predictive case outcomes, automated contract analytics, dynamic mapping of witnesses and issues. It’s not just faster—it’s smarter. For example, using “agentic” AI systems—the kind that act on behalf of users—was cited by Gartner as one of their top strategic tech trends for 2025. (Gartner)
The data point you must know
Let’s anchor this in a concrete figure. The global IT services market is projected to grow to $1.42 trillion by end of 2024, with a CAGR of about 5.76 %. (Atlantic | Tomorrow’s Office) Meanwhile, spend on AI-driven solutions is accelerating across industries. These macro trends show that supporting systems in litigation are no longer a niche—they’re part of the enterprise growth engine. I recall in Brooklyn we used to say: “If you don’t build for the bedrock, you’ll watch your structure tilt.” Today the “bedrock” is AI-enabled litigation architecture.
Real-world example: data meets counsel
Imagine a mid-size law firm that faces hundreds of contracts in an e-discovery matter. Traditional review might cost thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars. But by implementing an AI-powered litigation support platform, they run semantic analytics, flag high-risk clauses, map counter-party networks, and produce visualizations of witness-document networks in hours instead of days. The result: applying business engineering discipline to legal operations, the firm becomes a player in the e-business ecosystem—not just a cost center.
What you must do to modernize litigation support in your firm
- Audit your data architecture. Without clean, accessible data, AI platforms will flounder.
- Define your workflows like business processes, not just legal tasks. Tie the output to measurable metrics: cost per matter, time to review, win-rate uplift.
- Adopt AI governance and ethics frameworks. As AI moves into core legal operations, oversight becomes essential. PwC notes companies integrating AI need a “second set of eyes”. (PwC)
- Frame your value proposition. If your presentation to a C-suite says “we’ll reduce review time,” that’s not enough. It must say: “We’ll improve outcome certainty, reduce cost risk, and enable smarter settlement strategy.”
- Stay flexible. The tech is evolving rapidly. As I once re-designed a Brooklyn brownstone from rough shell to finished luxury loft, you too must iterate your legal-tech stack in stages, not aim for a one-and-done build.
Build your future-ready legal architecture
If you are a law firm, an in-house legal team, or a consulting firm advising clients, you must treat litigation support as a core business asset. The tools now exist to modernize operations, increase prediction accuracy, lower cost, and re-engineer workflows. I invite you: take the first step, map your current state, identify your bottlenecks, and build toward an AI-powered litigation support future. Comment below—what challenges are you facing in legal operations? Let’s start a discussion.
FAQ – Litigation Support in the Age of AI
Q 1: What is “agentic AI” in litigation support?
Agentic AI refers to AI systems that act on behalf of the user — for example, reviewing documents, proposing next-steps, automating tasks — rather than simply assisting. It’s a shift from reactive to proactive workflows.
Q 2: How do I avoid over-hyping AI and keep expectations realistic?
By setting measurable objectives. Focus on workflows you control, define KPIs (e.g., review hours saved, risk‐clauses flagged) and treat AI implementation as iterative—not a magic switch.
Q 3: Small law firms with limited budgets—can they leverage AI-powered litigation support?
Yes. Many cloud-based platforms offer scalable access without massive upfront investment. The business-engineering mindset matters more than budget: map your cost per matter today, then deploy incremental AI tools to improve it.
Cowan Consulting, LC is a boutique professional services and consulting firm founded by Moses Cowan, Esq. Moses Cowan is a polymath and thought leader in law, business, technology, etc., dedicated to exploring innovative solutions that bridge the gap between business and cutting-edge advancements. Follow this blog @ www.cowanconsulting.com/WP for more insights into the evolving world of law, business, and technology. And, learn more about Moses Cowan, Esq.’s personal commitment to the communities in which he serves at www.mosescowan.com.*