In this article, Donofrio joins a group of legal technology thought leaders as they outline their predictions for emerging technology in 2026, highlighting how new innovations will reshape legal practice. They explore a range of topics expected to define the year ahead, including the integration of advanced AI and autonomous systems, rising expectations for governance and regulations, and the growing challenges and opportunities that firms, in-house teams, and courts will face as advancing legal tech becomes more deeply woven into everyday work.

“As society and law practitioners have become accustomed and more comfortable with leveraging language models as a tool, we will begin to become more comfortable with letting an AI agent execute parts of our work for us autonomously,” says Donofrio. “The tools are maturing, and our understanding of how to safely apply them is advancing.”