Dear friends,

As we approach the holidays, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for this past year and for being part of one of this year’s highlights, which was of course the IBA’s Annual Conference. During the wonderfully intensive IBA week in Paris, we made many connections and had around 60 one-to-one meetings with memorable exchanges of experiences and perspectives. As we express our gratitude for these interactions, we also wanted, in line with previous years, to share some of our insights from the week.

This year, we paid special attention to two themes:

1) areas where you expect growth in the next six months, and

2) whether firms are already using AI tools in their everyday work.

With regard to the first theme of expected growth areas, Energy and Infrastructure was the most significant one, as it was mentioned as a growth area a total of 22 times, followed by Disputes (mentioned 13 times) and Regulatory and Investigations (mentioned nine times). M&A was mentioned as a predicted growth area only three times, and Defence and Aerospace was mentioned twice.

In our discussions on the topic of the use of AI, a clear majority of 67% said that they are already using AI tools to some extent in their everyday work. 20% said that they were conducting pilot tests with AI tools. Most of those who said that they are using a particular AI solution mentioned that the biggest relevance of AI has so far been within disputes and document review related to disputes. The rest with whom we discussed the matter said that AI is a key priority for their firm, even though they might not yet be using any particular AI solution.

We look forward to following up with you in the upcoming year to see how the growth area predictions will play out and how fast the adoption of various AI tools will be. In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful and relaxing holiday season with your closest ones.

Best regards,

THE HANNES SNELLMAN IBA TEAM