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Is Legal AI a Bubble?
It’s a very valid question.
There are so many vendors. New VC-backed startups appear weekly. Every product demo promises 90% efficiency gains. Every pitch deck claims the inevitability of Legal AI.
Meanwhile, skeptics point to failed pilots, hallucinations, and low adoption rates. And on top of it all, vibe-coding lawyers are building competing products overnight.
But even with all that, calling this moment a “bubble” misunderstands what’s actually happening in legal tech.
The global legal market is massive. Massive.
Law firms and in-house teams are actively buying AI software. Adoption is happening. It’s not theoretical. And you know it.
At SimpleDocs, we’re seeing staggering growth in new customer acquisition (see here and here) . But what’s more dramatic is adoption. Monthly active usage is exploding.
That doesn’t describe a bubble. It describes a market in transition.
Adoption Is No Longer the Question
For years, the open question in legal tech was simple: will lawyers actually use this stuff?
That question has been answered.
They are using it.
They are paying for it.
They are asking for more.
Within the next two years, every lawyer in the world will be using some form of specialized legal AI. Mark my words.
Not generic LLMs. Not wrappers. Not toys.
Built-for-purpose Legal AI for contracts, workflows, risk, compliance. All of it.
This shift isn’t speculative. It’s operational. The chasm is being crossed, so to speak.
But This Market Can’t Support All of Us
Where the skepticism does have a point is vendor count. And wow!
As large as the legal market is, it cannot support thousands of undifferentiated Legal AI tools doing roughly the same thing.
That doesn’t mean the technology is fragile. It means hard times and consolidation are inevitable.
Still, this isn’t winner-take-all.
Markets mature by pruning excess, not by collapsing altogether. We’ve seen this before.
Early cloud infrastructure.
Early video conferencing.
Early sales intelligence.
The pattern is consistent. Many entrants. Rapid experimentation. Rapid adoption. Then consolidation.
The companies that survive won’t be the ones shouting the loudest. They won’t necessarily be the ones raising the most capital either.
They’ll be the ones that:
Solve specific, high-frequency problems.
Embed into real customer workflows.
Improve outcomes over time.
Earn trust through data, accuracy, and usability.
Why AI Built for Contracts Matters
There’s a common assumption that large platforms or general-purpose AI will simply absorb everything else.
That assumption is lazy.
Legal work is deeply contextual. Contracts differ by jurisdiction. By industry. By deal type. By risk tolerance. By precedent.
The value isn’t just in generating language. It’s in knowing which language works, when it works, and why.
Tailored, focused legal AI companies have an advantage here. We move faster. We specialize more deeply. We design around how lawyers actually work.
The future of legal AI isn’t one giant system. It’s an ecosystem of specialized tools that integrate, compound value, and improve with use.
So, Is It a Bubble?
If by “bubble” we mean broken products with no real adoption?
No, Legal AI doesn’t qualify. We are not a bubble.
Real lawyers are using real tools in real workflows.
The market is big.
The demand is real.
The tools are getting better.
Some vendors won’t make it. Sure. That’s not market failure. That’s a natural progression.
And for legal teams deciding where to place their bet.
Bet on who you think will still be here ten years from now.
Who has the team?
The product vision?
And the commitment to customer experience?
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