AI Everywhere: Doug Austin on Legalweek’s Hottest Topics & Blurred Lines in eDiscovery

As part of our Legalweek Q&A series – and featured in our Live from Legalweek webinar – Brett and Doug reunited in person to talk through everything from classic search term disputes to GenAI overload in the Expo Hall. In this interview, they dive into the key moments and trends that shaped this year’s conference – and what they mean for the future of discovery.

AT A GLANCE

• Live from Legalweek 2025: Brett Burney and Doug Austin reunite in person to break down the biggest moments from this year’s conference – classic eDiscovery debates, trending case law, and more.

• AI Front and Center: With over 250 mentions in the agenda alone, GenAI dominated discussions, vendor pitches, and strategy sessions across the board.

• A Shifting Legal Tech Landscape: As AI adoption accelerates, traditional boundaries between legal tech vendors are fading – reshaping competition and collaboration in the industry.

Each week, Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today and Brett Burney of Nextpoint team up for our Key Discovery Points video series: quick, insightful chats on the latest and most pressing topics in eDiscovery. From breaking down major case law to analyzing the evolving role of AI in legal tech, Brett and Doug keep it practical, engaging, and always informative.

Brett:

I’m with Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today. I get to say that every week now, Doug, because you and I record the Key Discovery Points videos. I really enjoy doing that for just a few minutes with you every week. And it’s good because you are such a great resource for case law.

I saw you yesterday in a panel here at Legalweek, I think it was called “Evolving Jurisprudence.” I feel like we ended up talking about some of the same things, Doug, that we had been talking about with search terms. We went back and we’re talking about contract reviewers. It was a great panel, and I really enjoyed it. But I just feel like even now in 2025, we’re still talking about some of the cases and issues that we were talking about several years ago.

Doug:

Well, ironically, one of the very first cases they talked about yesterday, because they started off with proportionality disputes, was Tremblay v. OpenAI, and it was a search term dispute. It was a little ironic. That’s actually one of the cases we’ll be looking to cover next month on the monthly EDRM webinar, because I’d already eyed that case for coverage, and was aware of it.

It was certainly interesting to get all the takes from the panel. Judge Peck, who I do the monthly case webinar with, was there, and his insights are always interesting. It was an interesting panel yesterday from the standpoint that they covered some cases I knew about and covered, and they covered some cases I didn’t know about. They covered a great case from one of our favorite judges, Illinois Judge Jeffrey Cole, that Judge Peck talked about. And, as usual, he had some pretty direct commentary that made me want to consider going back and covering that even though it was a December case. So, we may have to loop that one into the mix.

Brett:

You should. That’s great.

Doug:

That was the first session I attended yesterday. It was a great session, 90 minutes. They really got into discussion of a lot of cases over that time. It was a great way to kick off Legalweek, which interestingly enough, I think for the first time in many years that I can recall, that Monday was basically a full day of sessions. They’ve usually started about midday, which is what I was planning for when I made my airline reservations months ago, expecting it to start around midday, and I would get here around then. So, I missed the morning sessions, which I heard were standing room only and people being turned away. Legalweek is as big as ever in our last year, amazingly enough, here at the New York Midtown Hilton, which is gonna be crazy because we all have so many things we’re used to.

Brett:

So many memories. I feel like I know exactly where I need to go. I don’t even have to think about where to go. Doug’s referencing the fact that next year, we’re going to be at the Javits center. I know all the bars and all the restaurants and everything around here (Midtown). That’s going to be something. But speaking quickly of Legalweek, obviously, we cannot escape AI, GenAI is everywhere. Any general thoughts? I know you say you missed the sessions, coming on Monday morning. Everybody’s talking about it, introducing it. You walk through the Expo Hall, any general thoughts? 

I know you’ve covered this so much. You have such great coverage on some of the stories that you look at, Doug, any general thoughts when coming in here and seeing everybody together on all of that?

Doug:

Are people talking about AI this year? I haven’t really seen any of that. [laughter] I already knew it was going to be a big AI conference this year. Every year, or at least the past several years, I’ve done a word cloud from the agenda. I did manage to get it in right before the conference, did it on Sunday, and published it. Last year, I think there were 142 mentions of the word AI in the agenda. This year it was 250, and that didn’t count GAI or GenAI. That was just AI.

It’s really everywhere, and so many sessions have discussions about it. I’ve hit a couple today that had hit some different aspects of AI. One of the things I’ve also been doing today, since I’m a member of the press, I’ve been having briefings with several companies. Some of them, of course, are core ediscovery-type companies, and some of them are really not ediscovery companies, but have AI offerings. 

One of the things that I’ve come to realize is that the lines are starting to blur in terms of services and capabilities, in terms of a non-ediscovery company expanding their capabilities and services to do things like ECA or trial prep or what have you. I think some ediscovery companies are expanding their scope outside of their normal realm as well. It’s going to be a much more complex, competitive landscape because, as I’m talking to more and more companies, they’re trying to figure out all sorts of things that they can apply AI to. Some of them are crossing into areas where there are companies that provide those services. Your historical competitors are going to be different than they have been.

Brett:

It seems like you’re not going to run out of things to write about.

Doug:

I never do, which is good. That would be bad for my business. [laughter] But yeah, there’s definitely plenty of interesting trends here. It’s always been a madhouse around here as it is every year. The keynote was great this morning with Rob Lowe.

Brett:

I didn’t know what to expect about that but it was actually really entertaining.

Doug:

He was really good. He was entertaining, but at the same time, had some pretty good advice that crosses over from entertainment into legal technology. It’s only the end of Tuesday, so there’s a lot more to come over the next couple of days. 

Brett:

Thanks for taking a few minutes to talk with us, Doug. I always enjoy talking with you. Check out Doug, of course, at eDiscoveryToday.com. Thanks again.

Doug:

Thank you, Brett. And definitely, I’m sure I’ll see you around about 10 more times before we’re done here. Stay safe.

Learn More from the Legal Tech Experts

Watch the full webinar, “Live from Legalweek,” to hear from more legal tech pros in addition to Doug and Brett. Plus, stay tuned for the rest of our Q&A series, featuring exclusive interviews from major players in the legal tech space.

CHECK OUT “LIVE FROM LEGALWEEK”

A few months ago, Doug and Brett gathered with Kelly Twigger of Minerva26 to discuss “modern attachments,” or hyperlinked files. Modern attachments have become a hot topic in the ediscovery sphere. Watch this webinar to get insights on this new data challenge from some of the best legal tech experts today.