How Did Litera Rank in ILTA’s 2026 Technology Survey?

In ILTA's 2026 Technology Survey, Litera products ranked first or led among named vendor products across high-value workflows on both the practice and business sides of law.

Accuracy remains one of law firms' biggest concerns about generative AI. In the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey, 63% of firms named accuracy among their three biggest concerns about generative AI. Fifty-five percent said product maturity and accuracy concerns were the main reasons they had not enabled the AI already included in their document management system. And 58% require human review of every piece of AI-assisted work before it goes to a client or court.

The implication is clear: AI adoption is not simply about whether a tool can generate an answer. It is about whether lawyers can rely on that answer in the workflows where mistakes carry real consequences.

That context makes the 2026 survey findings especially meaningful. Across document comparison, metadata removal, contract data extraction, document assembly, experience management and other high-value legal workflows, Litera products ranked first or led among named vendor products. The results show where firms have already placed their trust and why that foundation matters as firms evaluate Legal AI across both the practice and business of law.

Where Litera Ranked: The Short Answer

Litera products ranked first in several categories in the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey and led among named vendor products in others. The results span both sides of the firm: the practice of law, where documents are drafted, compared and reviewed; and the business of law, where firms price work, track experience and manage information.

How to read these rankings: "Most used" and "leading" describe the product's reported position within the relevant survey category. Where a survey category includes native tools, general-purpose platforms, or "none," the table identifies Litera's relative placement among named vendor products or dedicated tools, as noted. Percentages reflect the share of responding firms that selected the product or provider in the relevant survey question.

The Practice of Law: Where Accuracy Is Non-Negotiable

A redline that misses a change is not a minor problem. Neither is metadata that exposes confidential information, a document that contains incorrect numbering, or a contract-review result that fails to identify a material clause.

These are the workflows where lawyers need more than a plausible answer. They need dependable results, embedded in the systems and processes they use every day.

Document comparison: Litera Compare leads at 67%

Litera Compare is the most-used document comparison software in the profession, reported by 67% of firms in the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey. Among dedicated comparison tools, the nearest competitor is reported by 10% of firms.

Usage increases with firm size and document complexity:

• 91% of firms with 700 or more lawyers use Litera Compare.
• 87% of firms with 350 to 699 lawyers use Litera Compare.
• 82% of firms with 150 to 349 lawyers use Litera Compare.

Native Microsoft Word Track Changes has a larger footprint among smaller firms, where it is often used for simpler comparison needs. In the segments where deal volume, document length, and client scrutiny are typically greatest, Litera Compare has broad adoption.

That pattern reflects the importance of accuracy and consistency in high-stakes document work. Litera's document comparison technology is designed for legal workflows where a missed change can affect a negotiation, transaction, client relationship, or regulatory outcome.

Metadata removal: Litera Clean leads at 41%

Litera Clean (former Metadact) is the most used metadata checking and removal tool, reported by 41% of firms. The next option was reported by 24% of firms.

Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, 68% rely on Litera Clean. Metadata management may not attract the same attention as generative AI, but it remains a critical client-protection and risk-management workflow. Firms need to identify and remove information that should not leave the organization before a document is shared externally.

Contract review and data extraction: Kira by Litera leads at 35%

Kira by Litera is the most-used data classification and extraction product among firms that use one, reported by 35% of firms. Adoption rises to 60% among firms with 700 or more lawyers and 50% among firms with 350 to 699 lawyers.

Litera Foundation Insights, formerly Litera Dragon, accounts for a further 8% in the category.

Kira helps teams structure and extract information from unstructured contracts and other legal documents. For firms handling substantial transactions, diligence, knowledge-management, or contract-review workloads, the value is in creating a more consistent, usable foundation for legal analysis and downstream work.

Drafting, proofing and assembly: Litera Check and Litera Create

Litera Check is the most-used named document proofing and assembly product, reported by 20% of firms. Its adoption reaches 38% among firms with 700 or more lawyers.

Litera Create appears in two closely related workflow categories:

• Paragraph numbering in Microsoft Word: Litera Create / Litera Numbering is reported by 24% of firms overall and is the leading dedicated tool. Adoption reaches 55% among firms with 700 or more lawyers, where native Word numbering falls to 5%.
• Macro and template packages: Litera Create is reported by 18% of firms overall. It is the leading choice among firms with 700 or more lawyers, at 40%, and firms with 150 to 349 lawyers, at 30%.

Litera pdfDocs is reported by 8% of firms in the PDF editing and redacting category, placing third behind Adobe Acrobat and Tungsten Power PDF. Its adoption rises to 15% among firms with 350 to 699 lawyers.

Together, these results show how firms are assembling connected document workflows. Drafting, formatting, proofing, comparing, and preparing final documents are not isolated activities. They are part of the same matter lifecycle.

Legal AI: Litera Platform and Lito reach 17%

The Litera Platform (former Litera One) and Lito were named by 17% of firms as a generative AI tool in use or under review, placing them among the products identified in a category of 29 tools.

Adoption rises with firm size:

• 24% of firms with 150 to 349 lawyers named Lito.
• 28% of firms with 700 or more lawyers named Lito.

Kira was also named by 10% of firms in the Legal AI category.

These results matter because law firms are assessing Legal AI in the context of the technology they already run. Litera's approach combines deterministic engines and leading LLMs in Lito, the award-winning Legal AI agent, helping firms apply AI across the practice and business of law without treating it as a disconnected point solution.

The Business of Law: Where Growth Happens

Technology value does not end when a task is completed faster. Firms create more value when they can use capacity, matter data, experience and financial intelligence to deliver better client service and surface new opportunities for growth.

The ILTA survey highlights how much opportunity remains on the business side of law:

• 65% of firms have no experience or expertise management system.
• 76% have no pricing software.
• 27% have no data visualization or dashboard tool.

Those gaps make it harder for firms to locate institutional knowledge, scope and price work consistently, understand performance or connect legal delivery to business outcomes.

Experience management: Litera Foundation is the leading vendor product at 10%

Litera Foundation is the most-used vendor-provided experience and expertise tracking system, reported by 10% of all firms.

Among larger firms that are more likely to use an experience-management system, the difference is more pronounced:

• 46% of firms with 700 or more lawyers use Litera Foundation, compared with 7% using Intapp Experience.
• 31% of firms with 350 to 699 lawyers use Litera Foundation, compared with 8% using Intapp Experience.

Foundation helps firms surface matter data, client relationships and institutional knowledge when lawyers and business teams need it. That foundation is increasingly important as firms look to use generative AI to access and summarize their own experience data. According to the survey, 35% of firms already use generative AI for that purpose, rising to 57% of firms with 350 to 699 lawyers.

Pricing and scoping: Foundation Scoping leads at the largest firms

Litera Foundation Scoping, formerly Clocktimizer, is reported by 3% of firms overall. That figure needs context: only about 24% of firms report using any pricing software.

Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, Litera Foundation Scoping is the leading named choice, reported by 20% of firms. It is also reported by 10% of firms with 350 to 699 lawyers.

For firms working to make pricing more consistent and data-informed, the value of a scoping tool is not only operational. It supports better conversations about matter economics, resourcing, alternative fee arrangements and client value.

Financial intelligence and dashboards: Foundation Finance

Foundation Finance (former BigSquare) is reported by 4% of firms for data visualization and dashboard creation. Adoption rises to 10% among firms with 150 to 349 lawyers and 13% among firms with 350 to 699 lawyers.

Microsoft Power BI leads the category at 41%, indicating that many firms continue to build reporting on a general-purpose tool. Legal-specific financial intelligence becomes more relevant as firms need to connect reporting to the realities of matters, pricing, people, and client relationships.

Records and compliance: Litera FileTrail and CE Manager

Litera FileTrail is the second most-used records-management system, reported by 9% of firms overall. Among firms with 350 to 699 lawyers, 29% use FileTrail. Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, 30% use it.

Litera CE Manager is the most-used named product for tracking continuing legal education credits, reported by 11% of firms. Adoption rises to 30% among firms with 700 or more lawyers. The most common alternative remains a spreadsheet, used by 34% of firms.

These are practical examples of how business-of-law technology supports the work around legal work: the records, compliance obligations, reporting and institutional processes that enable firms to operate effectively at scale.

The platform question: Litera is considered by 33% of firms

When firms consider an enterprise or platform approach, 33% include Litera in their evaluation. That places Litera fifth, behind Microsoft at 75%, iManage at 53%, Aderant at 40% and Intapp at 34%, and ahead of Thomson Reuters at 28%.

Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, 47% include Litera in their enterprise platform considerations.

The list reflects the realities of law-firm technology. Microsoft and iManage are central environments for documents and content. Aderant and Intapp are often associated with financial, intake, and business workflows. Litera is considered across both the practice and business of law: the legal work lawyers deliver, and the systems firms use to understand, manage and grow that work.

Why Winning Both Halves Matters

Legal AI can create efficiency, but time saved is not the full measure of value. The return grows when firms can turn capacity into more responsive client service, stronger relationships, and new opportunities.

That is the idea behind RoAI, or Return on AI. RoAI considers three connected forms of value:

• Efficiency Growth: Reducing time spent on repetitive, document-intensive work.
• Relationship Growth: Helping lawyers deliver responsive, accurate work that strengthens client confidence.
• Business Growth: Using firm knowledge, matter data and pricing intelligence to identify, pursue and manage opportunities.

The ILTA findings matter because they show Litera's footprint across both sides of the firm. Litera Compare, Clean, Kira, Litera Check and Litera Create support core legal work. Foundation, Foundation Scoping, FileTrail and CE Manager support the experience, data, pricing and operational intelligence firms need to manage the business of law.

A platform approach does not require a firm to replace every technology system it uses. It means identifying where connected workflows and shared data can create greater value than isolated tools. For firms evaluating Legal AI, that connection becomes increasingly important: the more relevant data and trusted workflows a firm can bring together, the more useful AI can become.

Litera's platform strategy is built around that connection. Litera is the legal AI platform provider that unifies the practice and business of law, and Lito, the Legal AI agent, surfaces that intelligence so firms and legal departments capture the full value of RoAI. Built on deterministic engines for high-stakes work that cannot be wrong and foundational LLMs to ensure flexibility, Lito delivers efficiency, deeper relationships, and business growth.

What These Rankings Say About Choosing an AI Partner

The survey also shows what firms weigh when they choose legal technology. Features were named by 82% of firms, followed by integrations at 78%. Vendor viability was named by 47% of firms overall, rising to 65% of firms with 350 to 699 lawyers and 63% of firms with 700 or more lawyers. Interoperability follows a similar pattern, rising from 47% overall to 68% among the largest firms.

Those criteria point to a broader truth about Legal AI adoption. Firms need useful capabilities, but they also need technology that fits their existing environment, connects to critical systems, and comes from providers they expect to support over time.

Litera's position in the survey reflects an established presence in the workflows where accuracy, adoption, and integration matter. Its platform expands that foundation by connecting legal work with the data and intelligence firms need to serve clients and manage growth.

For firms deciding how to evaluate AI, the question is not simply, "What can this tool generate?" It is also:

• Can we trust it with the work that matters most?
• Does it fit the workflows lawyers already use?
• Does it connect to the systems and data that shape client service and business decisions?
• Can it support both today's priorities and the firm's longer-term technology strategy?

See What Firms Are Already Running

The firms represented in the ILTA survey are not choosing between speed and accuracy. They are looking for technology that supports dependable legal work, connects to the systems they already rely on, and helps them create value on both sides of the firm.

Litera's results across the practice and business of law show what a connected legal technology foundation can look like.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ILTA Technology Survey?

The ILTA Technology Survey is an annual study of law-firm technology published by the International Legal Technology Association. ILTA's 2026 survey includes input from 580 firms representing more than 152,000 attorneys and approximately 303,000 total users. ILTA describes its technology survey as a benchmark for firms' technology implementations and future plans.

How did Litera rank in the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey?

Litera products ranked first or led among named vendor products across multiple surveyed workflows. These include document comparison, metadata checking and removal, data classification and extraction, document assembly, experience management, and CLE credit tracking. The rankings table above provides the product-by-product results and notes where rankings reflect dedicated tools or named vendor products.

Which document comparison software do law firms use most?

Litera Compare is the most-used document comparison and redlining product in the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey, reported by 67% of firms. Usage reaches 91% among firms with 700 or more lawyers.

Which metadata removal tool do law firms use most?

Litera Metadact is the most used metadata checking and removal product, reported by 41% of firms. Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, usage reaches 68%.

Which contract data extraction tool do law firms use most?

Kira by Litera is the most-used data classification and extraction product among firms that use one, reported by 35% of firms. Usage reaches 60% among firms with 700 or more lawyers.

Which document assembly software do law firms use most?

Litera Check is the most-used named document assembly product in the survey, reported by 20% of firms. It reaches 38% among firms with 700 or more lawyers.

Which experience management software do law firms use?

Litera Foundation is the most-used vendor-provided experience and expertise tracking system, reported by 10% of all firms. Among firms with 700 or more lawyers, 46% use Litera Foundation.

How many law firms are using Legal AI in 2026?

According to the ILTA 2026 Technology Survey, 94% of law firms are using or exploring generative AI tools, up from 80% in 2025. Every firm in the 150-to-349-lawyer segment and every firm with 700 or more lawyers reported using or exploring generative AI.

What is RoAI?

RoAI, or Return on AI, measures the value of Legal AI across three areas: Efficiency Growth from time saved; Relationship Growth from stronger client service and trust; and Business Growth from better use of firm knowledge, matter data and commercial intelligence.

How should law firms choose between best-of-breed tools and a platform?

The right approach depends on a firm's workflows, technology environment, and data strategy. The ILTA survey suggests firms consider features, integrations, vendor viability and interoperability when evaluating technology. A platform approach can be valuable when connected workflows and shared data improve both legal delivery and business decision-making.

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