ABA TechShow 2026: Our Takeaways from Chicago

ABA TechShow 2026 wrapped up in Chicago last month, and as always, it gave us a lot to think about. The show is a reliable pulse check on where legal tech is heading, what firms are actually doing (vs. talking about), and where the real energy in the market lives. Here's what stood out to us.

The human lawyer isn't going anywhere — but the job is changing

The keynotes set the tone early. Legal market analyst Jordan Furlong opened the conference arguing that in the AI-driven future, the successful lawyers will be those who can supply sound advice, who will be advocates for their clients through thick and thin, and who will accompany them through every step of the matter (Source: Abovethelaw) — not those who simply out-research or out-draft the competition. Tech journalist Nilay Patel closed the show with a strikingly similar message from a different angle. The real value lawyers bring to clients is something AI can't bring: the ability to advise, listen, and guide them through ambiguity and lack of predictability (Source: Abovethelaw).

Two very different speakers, same conclusion. Law is still a human business, and the lawyers who thrive will be the ones leaning into that.

The shift from exploring to adopting

One thing that was unmistakable on the expo floor and in the sessions: firms aren't in "wait and see" mode anymore. Timekeeping tools that automatically capture activity across devices and applications and then propose draft time entries have grown dramatically since last year (Source: thetechsavvylawyer).The conversations we had reflected the same thing — most firms we spoke with are in active pilots or have already rolled out new AI tools in the past year. The exploratory phase is largely over.

This matches what we're hearing from our own customers. The question is no longer "should we adopt AI?" It's "which tools are actually moving the needle?"

Business of law is having its moment

The Startup Alley pitch competition — now in its 10th year — was a meaningful signal of where the market's attention is shifting. CollBox, a company that helps law firms get paid more quickly, won the competition (Source: Lawnext). Second place went to Candle AI, an email assistant for small and midsize firms, and third to Lawdify, an AI agent for disputes and claims assessment.

The winner tells you something. CollBox is squarely in the business-of-law category — not AI-for-legal-research, not document drafting, but revenue operations. Firms are waking up to the fact that great legal work doesn't matter if the business underneath it isn't healthy. We think this is one of the clearest signs yet that "business of law" is cementing itself as a primary AI use case, not a secondary one.

Partnerships and ecosystem openness are accelerating

Another theme we kept running into: legal tech companies are increasingly playing nice with each other. Practice management platforms, billing tools, document automation, and a wave of AI-enhanced products competed for attention (Source: thetechsavvylawyer) — but more notably, many of them were announcing integrations and partnerships rather than trying to be everything to everyone. The era of the walled-off platform is giving way to open ecosystems, and firms are the direct beneficiaries.

This is something we've been investing in ourselves. Our recent integration with Centerbase is a direct reflection of this trend — the most value comes when best-in-class tools work together rather than forcing firms to choose.

AI timekeeping is table stakes. What's next is bigger.

A few years ago, AI timekeeping was a novel concept. At TechShow 2026, it was a known and expected capability. For lawyers still reconstructing their days from memory and sticky notes, this is more than a marginal upgrade; it directly affects revenue, work-life balance, and accuracy. (Source: thetechsavvylawyer)

But the conversation is evolving. What we heard — and what we're seeing firsthand — is that the real opportunity isn't just capturing time anymore. It's capturing activity and work product data more broadly and using that to inform firm decisions: how work gets staffed, where profitability is leaking, how to price matters more intelligently. Time capture is the entry point. Practice intelligence is the destination.

The responsible adoption message

The most successful sessions respected that many lawyers are highly capable professionals who simply haven't had the time or guidance to modernize their workflows. They don't need to become prompt engineers. They need guardrails, roadmaps, and clear examples of how to align AI tools with the ABA Model Rules and local bar guidance (Source: thetechsavvylawyer). That framing resonated with us. The firms doing this well aren't chasing every new product — they're being deliberate about what they adopt and why.

Overall, TechShow 2026 felt like an inflection point. The hype cycle is settling, real adoption is accelerating, and the tools that will win are the ones that demonstrably improve how firms run and how lawyers serve clients. We'll see you in Chicago for 2027.