MTC: 2025 Year in Review: The "AI Squeeze," Redaction Disasters, and the Return of Hardware!
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As we close the book on 2025, the legal profession finds itself in a dramatically different landscape than the one we predicted back in January. If 2023 was the year of "AI Hype" and 2024 was the year of "AI Experimentation," 2025 has undeniably been the year of the "AI Reality Check."
Here at The Tech-Savvy Lawyer.Page, we have spent the last twelve months documenting the friction between rapid innovation and the stubborn realities of legal practice. From our podcast conversations with industry leaders like Seth Price and Chris Dralla to our deep dives into the ethics of digital practice, one theme has remained constant: Competence is no longer optional; it is survival.
Looking back at our coverage from this past year, three specific highlights stand out as defining moments for legal technology in 2025. These aren't just news items; they are signals of where our profession is heading.
Highlight #1: The "Black Box" Redaction Wake-Up Call
Just days ago, on December 23, 2025, the legal world learned of a catastrophic failure of basic technological competence. As we covered in our recent post, How To: Redact PDF Documents Properly and Recover Data from Failed Redactions: A Guide for Lawyers After the DOJ Epstein Files Release “Leak”, the Department of Justice’s release of the Jeffrey Epstein files became a case study in what not to do.
The failure was simple but devastating: relying on visual "masks" rather than true data sanitization. Tech-savvy readers—and let’s be honest, anyone with a basic knowledge of copy-paste—were able to lift the "redacted" names of associates and victims directly from the PDF.
Why this matters for you: This event shattered the illusion that "good enough" tech skills are acceptable in high-stakes litigation. In 2025, we learned that the duty of confidentiality (Model Rule 1.6) is inextricably linked to the duty of technical competence (Model Rule 1.1 and its Comment 8). As we move into 2026, firms must move beyond basic PDF tools and invest in purpose-built redaction software that "burns in" changes and scrubs metadata. If the DOJ can fail this publicly, your firm is not immune.
Highlight #2: The "AI Squeeze" on Hardware
Throughout the year, we’ve heard complaints about sluggish laptops and crashing applications. In our December 22nd post, The 2026 Hardware Hike: Why Law Firms Must Budget for the 'AI Squeeze' Now, we identified the culprit. It isn’t just your imagination—it’s the supply chain.
We are currently facing a global shortage of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), driven by the insatiable appetite of data centers powering the very AI models we use daily. Manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo are pivoting their supply to these high-profit enterprise clients, leaving consumer and business laptops with a supply deficit.
Why this matters for you: The era of the 16GB RAM laptop for lawyers is dead. Running local, privacy-focused AI models (a major trend in 2025) and heavy eDiscovery platforms now requires 32GB or even 64GB of RAM as a baseline (which means you may want more than the “baseline”). The "AI Squeeze" means that in 2026, hardware will be 15-20% more expensive and harder to find. The lesson? Buy now. If your firm has a hardware refresh cycle planned for Q2 2026, accelerate it to Q1. Budgeting for technology is no longer just about software subscriptions; it’s about securing the physical silicon needed to do your job.
Highlight #3: From "Chat" to "Doing" (The Rise of Agentic AI)
Earlier this year, on the Tech-Savvy Lawyer Podcast, we spoke with Chris Dralla of TypeLaw and discussed the evolution of AI tools. 2025 marked the shift from "Chatbot AI" (asking a bot a question) to "Agentic AI" (telling a bot to do a job).
Tools like TypeLaw didn't just "summarize" cases this year; they actively formatted briefs, checked citations against local court rules, and built tables of authorities with minimal human intervention. This is the "boring" automation we have always advocated for—technology that doesn't try to be a robot lawyer, but acts as a tireless paralegal.
Why this matters for you: The novelty of chatting with an LLM has worn off. The firms winning in 2025 were the ones adopting tools that integrated directly into Microsoft Word and Outlook to automate specific, repetitive workflows. The "Generalist AI" is being replaced by the "Specialist Agent."
Moving Forward: What We Can Learn Today for 2026
As we look toward the new year, the profession must internalize a critical lesson: Technology is a supply chain risk.
Whether it is the supply of affordable memory chips or the supply of secure software that properly handles redactions, you are dependent on your tools. The "Tech-Savvy" lawyer of 2026 is not just a user of technology but a manager of technology risk.
What to Expect in 2026:
Is your firm budgeted for the anticipated 2026 hardware price hike?
The Rise of the "Hybrid Builder": I predict that mid-sized firms will stop waiting for vendors to build the perfect tool and start building their own "micro-apps" on top of secure, private AI models.
Mandatory Tech Competence CLEs: rigorous enforcement of tech competence rules will likely follow the high-profile data breaches and redaction failures of 2025.
The Death of the Billable Hour (Again?): With "Agentic AI" handling the grunt work of drafting and formatting, clients will aggressively push back on bills for "document review" or "formatting." 2026 will force firms to bill for judgment, not just time.
As we sign off for the last time in 2025, remember our motto: Technology should make us better lawyers, not lazier ones. Check your redactions, upgrade your RAM, and we’ll see you in 2026.
Happy Lawyering and Happy New Year!
