Enterprise information management firm, OpenText, has announced findings from a new report indicating two thirds of legal professionals believe artificial intelligence spending will increase in 2019.

“AI, cloud and security have emerged as top priorities for law firms and enterprise legal departments as we approach 2020,” said Todd Elliott, OpenText’s VP for security, artificial intelligence, and legal technology.

The survey results demonstrate the convergence of multiple disciplines and the expanding responsibilities of corporate legal operations professionals. Today’s corporate legal leaders are shaping IT strategy with an eye towards litigation-readiness and partnering with security teams on data breach response plans.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Cloud adoption: 83%, of respondents rated their organization’s current use of cloud-based tools at a three or above on a 1-5 scale. 94% rated their company’s openness to implementing cloud solutions in the coming year at three or higher
• Use of AI: 34% of respondents currently use AI within legal departments. 66 % of respondents believe that spending on AI solutions will increase in 2019
• Security focus: 91 % said the legal department’s influence on information security decisions has increased. 49 % claim the legal team is much more involved in information security than before. 91 % of respondents reported they have data security concerns around distributing electronically stored information to multiple discovery vendors and law firms
• GDPR changes: 80% of respondents said data privacy concerns are affecting how they handle discovery and investigations, the impacts of regulations such as GDPR are starting to be realized by legal professionals. 49% of respondents reported the volume of government or regulatory investigations has grown over the past year
• ECM integration: 74% of participants said that if their ECM systems were integrated with their eDiscovery systems, it would be beneficial for the legal department.