What Lawyers Can Learn From CES 2025: Trends That Matter

As always, CES demonstrates that, as technology advances at warp speed, legal professionals cannot afford to lag behind.
The post What Lawyers Can Learn From CES 2025: Trends That Matter appeared first on Above the Law.

The colossal consumer electronics show, CES, opened Sunday evening, January 5, with a day and half of media days designed to acquaint the media with developments in the consumer tech world. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) also provides a Tech Trends media presentation on Sunday as well. The media gets an advanced peek at the exhibitors at CES in a Sunday evening event called Unveiled. (I previously authored a preview of this year’s show and explained why CES is relevant to legal). 

Then on Monday, January 6, big tech players such as Samsung, Toyota (CES may well be the world’s biggest auto show as that industry increasingly relies on electronics to work), John Deere (agriculture too is more and more tech-based), LG Electronics, TCL, and Sony offer sophisticated media press conferences.

Tech Trends

The show opens every year with CTA’s media presentation entitled 2025 Tech Trends to Watch. The presentation focuses on the latest tech research and consumer tech trends expected at CES 2025 and beyond. While it’s focused, of course, on consumer technology trends, the ripple effects of these trends in the legal industry are real. The technology with some of the most significant impacts on legal has in fact been those which lawyers, as consumers, adopt and begin to use in their work. Smartphones. Laptops. Google. Even gen AI.

The trends presentation is always on the first media day of CES. This year, the presentation was given by Brian Comiskey, CTA director of trends, and Melissa Harrison, CTA senior vice president. This year’s identified trends raise more questions than they perhaps answer for legal, given the rapid evolution of AI and gen AI. 

Gen Z Flexes Its Muscles

One of the top trends I reported last year is just as important this year, if not more so: Gen Z’s continued power and impact on the marketplace and the world of work. (Gen Z is generally considered to be made up of those born between 1996 and 2009).

Some important statistics from this year’s report:

• Gen Z workers will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025
• 86% of U.S. Gen Z members say technology is essential to them
• 60% label themselves as early tech adopters.
• Gen Z members are 2.5 times more likely to purchase tech that offers multiple sustainability attributes.

Comiskey pointed out that Gen Z is the first completely digital native generation. Gen Zers never knew a time when the world was not fully online and on screen. They never knew a time when the world’s information was not instantly and completely available online all the time. 

The attitudes, different ways of accessing and viewing information, and technology expectations of Gen Z could very well pose management challenges for those in previous generations. These challenges could be particularly acute in legal; in no other industry is age and experience considered so important and revered by older members. Few businesses have such a reluctance to adopt and embrace technology as law. Few businesses cling to a business model that penalizes the efficiencies and innovation possibilities technology brings. 

Yet, the implications of the Trends Report are pretty clear: The hesitancy to adopt and use technology and being late adopters is anathema to Gen Z. Clearly, Gen Z has more significant issues on their minds than unquestionably working more hours. How will older lawyers manage and incentivize Gen Z when they view the world and their technology experiences so differently? 

Beyond management, how can older lawyers persuade Gen Z judges and juries when they come from such different worlds? All questions that legal can ill afford to ignore. Gen Z’s reliance on cutting-edge tech will demand law firms provide tools that mirror this consumer experience, or risk alienating young talent and clients.

Consumer Marketplace and Consumer Expectations Are Changing

Comiskey pointed out that the retail consumer technology revenue grew 3.2% last year in both hardware and software. More importantly, as AI and Gen AI have rapidly developed, the upgrade cycle of consumers has also increased as consumers seek access to the latest and greatest tech tools. Consumers use AI and Gen AI in their daily lives and want the technology that enables it. People expect to collaborate seamlessly with AI. CTA reports a staggering 93% of U.S. consumers are familiar with Gen AI, and 61% say they already use it at work.

But Comiskey and Harrison also sounded a troubling note: Increased tariffs on goods manufactured in other countries could result in a huge decline in tech sales and revenue that could top $190 million.

What does all this mean for legal? Again, there is a gap between what legal does and the expectations of its workers and perhaps even clients. Last year, a survey reported just this gap as younger associates complained about having to use antiquated tech to do work. According to CTA, consumers — younger associates and even partners — are used to using state-of-the-art tech and AI in their everyday consumer lives. 

How will it be when they can’t do the same in their work lives? And if tariffs substantially increase the cost of up-to-date tech, how will legal respond when it doesn’t seem eager to adopt the newest and best hardware and software?

Other Trends

Comiskey and Harrison talked about some other trends that will impact legal. More and more tech is being devoted to longevity and healthier living opportunities, precision medicine, and remote care. All these tools open up possible legal issues as the nature and standard of care due to technology shifts. Longevity means diseases that take longer to manifest — like asbestosis — will have longer to develop, resulting in additional claims.

Another trend is the blurring of audio, video, and gaming platforms into a seamless product displayed on screens such as televisions. Gaming, for example, may pivot from a static platform to live-action and real-life settings for a more immersive and active experience. 

Again, the expectations of consumers for receiving information and being persuaded will be important for lawyers. Lawyers, especially litigators, need to continually update their storytelling techniques to be sure that they use the tools their audience expects. Tech is moving too rapidly to safely conclude that old tools will still work as well. Lawyers also need to understand that the tools needed to reach Gen Z may differ from those to reach Baby Boomers. 

Another thing that is more and more obvious: Driving is changing and changing quickly. It’s long been believed that we are far away from self-driving cars, for example. Yet Comiskey and Harrison pointed out that the fully autonomous Waymo taxis may have reached a tipping point with over 100,000 rides. 

These developments will completely change car accidents and disputes, with fewer but different types of cases. The capacity of increased sensors in cars and cloud storage opens up new privacy issues that range from traffic violations to insurance ratings. 

The Future

Comiskey and Harrison also tried their hands at predicting where we were headed. Of course, both cited the potential for AI-based agents working alongside us to reform various tasks, as I have written before. Digital twins and “enchanted” (aka cute) robots will proliferate.

Comiskey believes that tech will become more and more human-centric as data and AI are used to personalize outcomes. Harrison cited quantum computing as perhaps upending our world even more than AI and Gen AI.

Unveiled

Tech Trends to Watch is always immediately followed by Unveiled Las Vegas, which provides media with a sneak peek at many of the CES exhibitors in advance of the show’s formal opening. 

Unveiled is a more intimate setting than that of the exhibit floors in general (CES is the only show I know of where you have to stand in line to visit a vendor’s main exhibit space). By my count, over 200 exhibitors had small booths in the Unveiled space in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for two and a half hours of time with the media. Since all of these exhibitors then break down and set up in other exhibit locations for the rest of the show, the booths are small and less overwhelming — more information sharing and less glitz.

So what did I see at this year’s Unveiled? Lots of things that were consistent with the Trends Report, which highlights the consumer tech/legal tension. Things like electric skates that would enable legal professionals to move faster and save time. (Oops. I forgot. That’s not necessarily the goal of many of us). 

Lots of health-related products that would enable remote monitoring by medical professionals. Lots of cute-looking little pet-like robots (not sure if these will ever hit the mainstream, but as someone pointed out, you don’t have to let these little critters out to relieve themselves over and over). 

Sensors designed to replicate human touch to enhance digital experiences (feel tech). AI learning tools. Neurotechnology tools, which I previously discussed. Flying cars. Everyday AI glasses. Devices to eliminate the need for humans to vacuum, clean pools, and do other drudge work. Hologram technology to replicate human images. Tools and devices designed to blur the digital world with the real world. Yes, lots of pie (er, tech) in the sky. But we can’t dismiss the possibilities.

What’s the So What?

So, what does all this mean for lawyers and legal professionals? It’s hard to say there is one big thing that we in law need to be thinking about. Instead, it is clear that tech is advancing so fast and in so many unpredictable ways, now more than ever legal professionals need to be alert. We need to understand more than ever the risks and benefits of technology. 

That’s why conferences like CES are so important, although largely ignored by the profession. Lawyers must actively monitor consumer tech trends to anticipate the expectations of their clients and colleagues.

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Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a blog devoted to the examination of the tension between technology, the law, and the practice of law.