Article | 19th December 2025
Looking Back: Reflecting on Legal Knowledge Management Trends in 2025
Legal Knowledge Management Trend #1 in 2025: Building AI Readiness
Since the rise of GenAI, we’ve seen a wave of interest in the power of AI to unleash potential in the legal sector. Though we have seen examples of the ‘AI bubble’ bursting in some instances this year, AI market leaders are increasingly winning new, larger clients, and widespread interest in AI continues.
In many cases, firms spent 2025 carrying out AI discovery work, and undertaking small-scale trials in order to define and redefine AI use cases. Yet it is only in the past eighteen months that we have seen the wider market come to terms with the critical need to manage data in order to drive the success of AI adoptions.
Put simply, AI relies on having access to accurate, high-value information and resources to deliver impactful results. Yet more than this, AI also needs support in order to understand the information it has access to, and this is why knowledge curation and enrichment are such essential practices for law firms today. Tom Humberstone, Head of IT Applications and Development at Womble Bond Dickinson, summarised this in a recent Tiger Eye panel event, commenting:
“GenAI is all about high quality knowledge to deliver value. The context, the data, the tagging, the knowledge profile… they all contribute to better outcomes.”
Because of this, we have seen many firms go ‘back to basics’ with this process this year, ensuring data is properly managed before AI is adopted or made available to users. In some cases, firms have had to revisit knowledge repositories to ensure they are fit for purpose for the GenAI age. In other instances, firms are carrying out knowledge audits across their technology stacks to find, curate and enrich knowledge to specifically support effective AI adoptions.
Legal Knowledge Management Trend #2 in 2025: Knowledge Access vs Document Security
Over the past twelve months, we’ve also seen many firms attempting to balance the need to make knowledge accessible, with continued drives for document security, including ‘Need-to-Know’ models which restrict access.
We discussed this challenge in detail in a recent knowledge management roundtable with Jenni Tellyn (Consultant, 3Kites), Fiona Parkinson (Knowledge Manager, The Bar Standards Board) and Tom Humberstone (Head of IT Applications and Development, Womble Bond Dickinson).
During the discussion, Tom Humberstone commented:
“It’s a hot topic. For me, knowledge repositories have evolved beyond traditional, curated know-how to encompass a broader set of sources now. This could be transactional content or third-party content as well… Security was once a secondary concern in knowledge systems, but it is now deeply embedded. Historically open by default, knowledge platforms today increasingly require governance and protection, whether that’s in the form of information barriers or contractual restrictions… We are definitely seeing knowledge security becoming a more significant topic.”
Reflecting on this, Jenni Tellyn, Consultant at 3Kites, added:
“It’s a big concern for people…It sort of means that you have to work even harder at your knowledge management… You’ve got to work on those submission processes and getting people to submit knowledge and share deliberately.”
In many cases there isn’t a perfect answer to the continued debate between open knowledge access and restricted information access. And for some organisations, discussions will continue for years to come. Yet, as AI continues to be adopted more widely, it is more important than ever before for firms to grapple with this challenge, as they must drive secure knowledge access, both for staff (to reduce time waste in knowledge searches) and for underlying technologies (to ensure solutions like AI can access trusted resources to deliver valuable results).
Looking Ahead: Key Legal Knowledge Management Trends in 2026
Legal Knowledge Management Trend #1 in 2026: Driving (and Scaling) AI Adoption
As we look ahead to the next twelve months, it is clear that AI will continue to be a key trend – and a core area of focus for law firms across various teams, including knowledge, innovation, information, IT and operations.
As previously mentioned, many firms spent much of 2025 carrying out essential AI discovery work, analysing prospective solutions and initiating AI pilot adoption projects to test ideas and measure results. In 2026, we will see many of these organisations move away analysis, towards specific, targeted roll outs of AI across the business. Instead of testing in isolation, firms will begin stress-testing use cases, and driving deeper adoptions of chosen technologies either within specific departments or firmwide.
At Tiger Eye, we see knowledge teams as essential in the process of scaling AI initiatives and pursuits towards diversified growth, as these individuals can use their unique knowledge of the firm’s processes and collective expertise to support expansion.
Alex Smith, Global Search & AI Product Lead at iManage, summarised this during Harnessing Knowledge in the Legal Sector: a recent panel event hosted by Tiger Eye. Commenting on this trend towards scaling AI adoptions, Alex noted:
“We are seeing people come back to the KM team… There are a lot of people coming back with very interesting (AI) Proof of Concepts, and now the question is ‘how do we make it stick?’ across a practice group or at firm level, and then how do we maintain and look after those (AI) tools across the next five or ten years.”
In alignment with this, we are already seeing an increase in forecasted legal technology spend over the coming months. For example, Briefing and HSBC reported that “the average expected expenditure on technology-based transformation is 6.5% of annual revenue” which is “up from 6.1% in 2024” as firms intend to “invest a higher percentage of annual revenue in technology development, implementation or skills”. (HSBC Law Firm Strategy and Investment Survey Report 2025/2026, Briefing, October 2025).
In the report, Victoria Ritchie, Head of Professional and Business Services at HSBC UK, elaborated on this, commenting:
“We see that firms now plan to spend an average 6.5% of annual revenue across all aspects of technology plans — increased cost is of course one consideration here, but it’s clear from other findings that technology is also a possible route to some prized diversification in the pursuit of growth.”
Legal Knowledge Management Trend #2 in 2026: Data Management, and Aspiring to True Tech Stack Connectivity
With increased adoption and usage of AI technologies and enterprise search solutions, many firms will also look to build greater connectivity across their technology stacks, to drive more knowledge accessibility and address potential knowledge silos. We predict many firms will aspire to move away from data warehouses towards creating truly interconnected, integrated structures, supported by targeted security measures across platforms.
Yet, in many cases, firms will be grappling with large, unstructured and often ‘messy’ datasets for at least the next year, as without focus, the problem will continue to grow. Unfortunately, in many cases, organisations will continue to receive poor outcomes from AI as a result of this issue.
Though building AI readiness was a key trend in 2025, we anticipate that this process will be ongoing for many years.
This is because as Rob Taylor, Tiger Eye’s Product Manager, summarises:
“AI will magnify any data issues you may have, and do so at pace, and at scale. In short, using data or knowledge that you do not trust to ‘feed’ AI technologies will deliver answers you cannot possibly trust. You need to have confidence in your underlying data (including both data quality and data structuring) and trust that AI can find the right answers for you, in order for it to provide value.”
Legal Knowledge Management Trend #3 in 2026: Continued Investment in Knowledge Management and Innovation
Finally, we predict that in the new year we will see an increased investment in Knowledge Management and innovation across the legal industry, as firms recognise the importance of these teams, processes and practices to facilitate key initiatives such as AI adoption, training and building a competitive edge. This investment will take various forms and be seen across people, process and technology.
In many ways, AI could reshape legal teams at large. As Charlotte Green, Head of Clients and Markets at Gowling WLG commented in Briefing Magazine this year (in Briefing Magazine: The New Law Firm Formula, Briefing, September 2025):
“In business services, I think we’ll see larger IT departments and innovation teams, but fewer people in other areas owing to the impact of agentic AI and other tech advances.”
At Tiger Eye, we’ve already seen firms invest in comprehensive KM initiatives in 2025, with many organisations initially appointing a senior knowledge leader to build a strategy and define requirements, before subsequently investing in supportive KM technology, too. As we move into 2026, we expect to see this approach rise in popularity, with the appointment of knowledge leaders or even knowledge teams taking place across the sector, especially as small to mid-market firms look to make their first formal investments into knowledge management.
The driving force behind KM adoption will vary from firm to firm, but in many cases, it will be driven by ‘people centric’ challenges like knowledge loss, staff retainment and talent development. For example, as lateral hires continue to take place across the sector, avoiding the risk of knowledge loss will be an important activity that knowledge teams will play a crucial role in managing, with such specialists capturing, curating and governing ‘at risk’ knowledge such as highly-specialist expertise. Knowledge teams will also play a crucial role in forming knowledge sharing cultures, working with departments to encourage the open, honest sharing of know-how and best practices across the firm in order to promote organisational learning and improvement. Equally, the training of junior associates will be a key challenge to address in the coming years as AI begins to change the way that ‘entry level’ work is carried out by firms.
Summary
In summary, what will be key legal knowledge management trends in 2026?
- Law firms moving away from trialling or testing out AI using pilot projects, as they move on to carrying out targeted AI adoptions including departmental implementations as well as firm-wide roll-outs.
- Legal technology teams will increasingly aim to connect systems across law firm technology stacks to drive better results from AI and to manage security at scale across interconnected system. However at Tiger Eye, we predict that many firms will still have to focus on managing, structuring and organising their data and completing the ‘ground work’ needed to make this a success.
- Finally, we predict that we will see greater investment in legal knowledge management and innovation in 2026 including investment across people, processes and technologies. At Tiger Eye, we saw a number of firms invest in appointing knowledge leaders in 2025, and we predict that in the new year, more firms will follow this trend, creating knowledge management strategies and processes in order to address knowledge risks and unleash the many benefits of legal knowledge management.