Trend Predictions for eDiscovery in 2023

Recent technological advancements in artificial intelligence are among the top trends that will impact electronic discovery in 2023. The public release of OpenAI’s generative pre-trained transformer large language model neural network and the integration of GPT-4 into Microsoft 365 applications will directly affect organizations that use Microsoft Purview eDiscovery. Ongoing developments in automation, integration and collaboration are poised to affect discovery across platforms. Find out what changes experts are predicting and how cloud migration services can prepare enterprise legal teams to keep up with the latest trends.

eDiscovery of AI-Generated Documents

With the latest advances in AI, documents generated with assistance from AI will turn up in discovery sooner rather than later. Microsoft recently announced Copilot for M365 applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams. Microsoft Purview allows searches of M365 content, which will soon include documents that draw on AI suggestions in addition to content generated entirely by AI.

The legal implications of GPT-4 integration in M365 are likely to affect discovery use cases in the near future. As of mid-March 2023, Microsoft is currently testing M365 Copilot with 20 customers. These early adopters are likely to set trends that will become more widespread as the preview of these AI-powered features becomes available to more users in the coming months.

Advances In Automation for eDiscovery

Automation has come to play a larger role in discovery over the last several years. While automating tasks and processes can be helpful at any stage of discovery, the latest trends involve maximizing the effectiveness of early case assessment. Stakeholders can streamline the identification of significant materials and protocols for preserving and exporting electronically stored information.

The ongoing trends in automating discovery are toward expediting tasks and processes related to reviewing and analyzing content and culling significant data. The ability to automate legal hold notifications and processes also helps to manage the lifecycle of data, from creating to delaying holds until defensible deletion.

Improvements To Microsoft Graph APIs for eDiscovery

Microsoft Purview APIs draw on Microsoft Graph to allow for more sophisticated discovery across M365 applications and third-party integrations. Microsoft rolled out Purview APIs to customers and partners back in 2022, and these offerings will continue to expand in 2023. This trend accelerates an ongoing shift toward automation while providing much-needed extensibility to other platforms.

Expanding the API surface area has the potential to make discovery more user-friendly. The first set of Graph APIs are currently available in public preview and indicate a trend toward improving security and compliance features that stands to benefit many organizations.

Discovering Third-Party Data

Many companies rely on software as a service solutions in daily operations. A recent study found that enterprises that have over 1,000 employees use 177 SaaS applications on average. The need for eDiscovery tools to account for discoverable data in SaaS applications is not new, but there are more resources than ever before that make it easier to access and process data across platforms.

Good data governance is a primary security concern for organizations that use numerous SaaS applications. The Microsoft Purview Data Catalog provides unified data governance and classification capabilities for on-premises, multi-cloud and SaaS data. Data Connectors also play an important role in ingesting and processing data from multiple sources.

Cross-Platform Solutions for eDiscovery

Microsoft Graph APIs enable independent software vendors to provide solutions that facilitate the discovery process. For instance, the SaaS solution RelativityOne enhances and extends the capabilities of Microsoft Purview. A business intelligence dashboard solution such as BDO’s Athenagy can draw on data from both Microsoft Purview and RelativityOne. Microsoft Graph APIs for Microsoft Purview also allow for even wider extensibility across platforms.

Legal teams at many organizations report challenges using eDiscovery. Cross-platform solutions can resolve a number of issues related to searches, query syntax, rules and review tools. Solutions that enhance the functionality of this resource can also support more complex productions and collaborations.

Investments In Tech for Productive Collaboration

Some of the biggest trends of this year are bound to transform collaboration. For instance, Loop componentsin Microsoft Teams and Outlook enable multiple users to change and utilize shared blocks of text and content and generate clickable histories of changes. The functionality of Loop components and other Fluid Framework innovations are on track to change collaboration in M365 at the same time that Graph APIs enable cross-platform collaboration.

Companies can keep up with these trends by investing in M365 licenses that include these capabilities and pursuing integrated solutions. Decision-makers should also consider the most effective ways to use AI and automation to support collaboration. It is worthwhile to note that AI-assisted features such as M365 Copilot inherit existing compliance, privacy and security policies and processes.

eDiscovery Trends for 2023 and Beyond

Keeping up with trends in electronic discovery calls for an M365 license that supports the content search, custodian management, holding and indexing needs of an organization. The approach that an enterprise takes to migrating data into the cloud can affect the availability of important information in Microsoft Purview.

Cloudficient offers next-generation cloud migration solutions to companies to maximize productivity as enterprises retire legacy systems and transform eDiscovery workflows into the cloud. We create product offerings to match client needs and help companies keep up with the latest trends in technology, including artificial intelligence, automation and cross-platform integration. The services we provide are affordable, scalable, fast and seamless.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

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