President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room flanked by Masayoshi Son, Larry Ellison, and Sam Altman at the White House on January 21, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room flanked by Masayoshi Son, Larry Ellison, and Sam Altman at the White House on January 21, 2025. In case you missed it, 2025 was a big year for AI. It became an economic force, propping up the stock market, and a geopolitical pawn, redrawing the frontlines of Great Power competition. It had both global and deeply personal effects, changing the ways that we think, write, and relate.

What comes to mind when you hear the word'automation'? It is something everyone talks about whenever you go to conferences on the future of work, and, unsurprisingly, it can be a polarising topic. Some might see automation as an opportunity to improve productivity, time management, and speed up innovation. Others might raise concerns about the disappearance of jobs and the future of employment. The topic is complex, ill-defined, and contextually sensitive.

It's been an incredible year for the'New Wave' of legal technology and Artificial Lawyer has hopefully been able to bring you some of the key moments in this evolutionary journey that is unfolding week by week all around the world. Now, as we head toward 2018, many of the leading players and commentators in the legal AI, legal bot and data analysis world have been asked to give their views on what has taken place and what will happen next. Plus, next year there will be predictions from the world of smart contracts and legal blockchain, (Hi, Clause, Integra Ledger and IBM's Cognitive Legal team, to name a few!) Artificial Lawyer asked an array of experts to name what was the biggest development for legal AI and the New Wave of legal technology this year, and what they expected to see happen in 2018. They were invited to respond with text or images to illustrate their views, and if they were up for it, a haiku or longer poem. Naturally, we couldn't fit everyone in – the legal tech world is just so massive now – but hopefully you'll find this collective wisdom both inspiring and thought-provoking – and fun – I know Artificial Lawyer did.

It's been an incredible year for the'New Wave' of legal technology and Artificial Lawyer has hopefully been able to bring you some of the key moments in this evolutionary journey that is unfolding week by week all around the world. Now, as we head toward 2018, many of the leading players and commentators in the legal AI, legal bot and data analysis world have been asked to give their views on what has taken place and what will happen next. Plus, next year there will be predictions from the world of smart contracts and legal blockchain, (Hi, Clause, Integra Ledger and IBM's Cognitive Legal team, to name a few!) Artificial Lawyer asked an array of experts to name what was the biggest development for legal AI and the New Wave of legal technology this year, and what they expected to see happen in 2018. They were invited to respond with text or images to illustrate their views, and if they were up for it, a haiku or longer poem. Naturally, we couldn't fit everyone in – the legal tech world is just so massive now – but hopefully you'll find this collective wisdom both inspiring and thought-provoking – and fun – I know Artificial Lawyer did. Biggest development of 2017: 'I think the most significant thing was how mainstream legal AI became – mass adoption by firms and NewLaw, and more focus on integrations, grown up security requirements, APIs and the like.' Biggest development of 2018: 'I think we're going to see more news about wider ML applicability, not just NLP/ML for litigation document review, contract review in diligence and in-house contract review (the primary use cases to date).

This week saw the placation of GST bill on logistics along with many more news such as evolvement of digital payments and artificial intelligence in E-commerce industry. The meeting of AI and e-commerce could not only transform the way jillions of online transactions are done, but also change the in-store purchase behaviors which are influenced by digital interactions. According to Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, artificial intelligence is a key differentiator in the fiercely competitive e-commerce business. Digital payments will grow 10 times to reach 500 billion by 2020 and contribute 15% of gross domestic product (GDP). Some of the key reasons of these acquisitions include privacy of customer's payment data, secured payment facility and use of payment data for big data analysis to the company.