Neglect the daring predictions. Ken Crutchfield is specializing in one thing extra elementary: the physics of the authorized tech market.
Within the wake of a banner 2025 — with Harvey hitting an $8 billion valuation, Filevine elevating $400 million, and Clio’s acquisition of vLex — it’s tempting to both rejoice the growth or fret about an AI bubble.

In his newest column for LawNext, tech-infrastructure-capital-and-the-coming-ai-realignment-part-1-of-2/”>The New Physics of Authorized tech: Infrastructure, Capital, and the Coming AI Realignment, the primary of two components, Crutchfield identifies six important traits to observe, from the AI Industrial Revolution’s geopolitical implications to the efficiency of the Magnificent 7 tech giants, from mainstream AI adoption in regulation to mounting ROI stress on everybody from Thomson Reuters to venture-backed startups.
“Authorized innovators should deal with defensible purposes that transcend LLMs,” Crutchfield writes, warning that utilizing basis fashions is “like dancing with elephants. Don’t get so shut that the elephant steps on you.”
He additionally previews Half 2, the place he’ll look at how unauthorized apply of regulation (UPL) turns into the collision level “the place expertise, client conduct, ROI pressures, {and professional} regulation collide, and the place the physics of the market are more likely to drive structural change.”
Crutchfield is principal of Spring Forward Consulting and has been an govt at LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and most just lately Wolters Kluwer, the place he was vice chairman and basic supervisor of authorized markets for Wolters Kluwer Authorized & Regulatory U.S.
Learn his tech-infrastructure-capital-and-the-coming-ai-realignment-part-1-of-2/”>full publish on LawNext.
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