Gartner Says Legal Tech Budgets Will Double. Here Is What Firms Should Spend It On.

written by Kathleen Hogan

Gartner’s latest prediction landed last week with a headline that legal technology vendors will be quoting for years: legal tech budgets will double by 2028. If you are a GC, managing partner, or director of legal operations, you are probably already fielding calls from vendors who want to be part of that spending.

Here is what the prediction actually says, and what it means for where your budget should go.

What Gartner Actually Found

The growth Gartner is predicting is driven by a specific category of tools: specialized legal AI platforms that are delivering measurable productivity gains in important legal workflows. Examples include contract review acceleration, reduced external counsel spend, and improvements in compliance outcomes. Looking further ahead, Gartner projects that by 2029, approximately 50% of contract reviews will be delegated to self-service systems, and 60% of legal departments will use AI-driven intake systems that answer half of