New Reveal Report: 91% of eDiscovery Buyers Demand Private Deployment as AI Moves From Experiment to Operational Priority

Survey of 200 senior legal technology decision-makers shows nearly half of all matters already require private deployment, with 100% demand for AI model independence

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reveal, the provider of integrated AI-native platforms spanning the eDiscovery lifecycle, today released the 2026 eDiscovery Buyers Report, a survey of 200 senior eDiscovery decision-makers that maps how organizations are rethinking their technology infrastructure as AI moves from pilot programs to operational imperative.

The findings run counter to the "cloud-first" narrative advanced by the market's largest incumbent. Buyers are demanding more deployment options and a broader range of infrastructure choices.

Key findings include:

• 91% of respondents report that their share of matters requiring private cloud or on-premises deployment has grown over the past 24 months.
• 46% of all matters, on average, already require private or on-premises deployment due to data residency, cost or security requirements.
• 100% of respondents say the ability to run their own proprietary or fine-tuned AI models within their eDiscovery environment is important to their operations.
• 68% believe their primary vendor's deployment recommendations are driven more by commercial interests than by customer needs.
• 48% expect to operate a hybrid deployment model within the next 24 months, routing matters to both public cloud and privately deployed environments based on matter-specific requirements.
• Organizations report eDiscovery costs have risen 20% per year on average over the past three years and 68% expect AI-driven data growth to push those costs higher.

"Buyers increasingly view private and hybrid deployment as the more economical path as AI-driven data volumes climb, expecting lower total cost of ownership on infrastructure they control versus consumption-based public SaaS pricing. The math only gets more compelling from here," said Eric Harmon, CEO of Reveal.

The report also tracks migration patterns from incumbent platforms as their sunset dates approach.

Among buyers migrating off of incumbent solutions, 31% name Reveal Private Deployment as their destination, more than any other platform cited in the survey. Among the factors shaping deployment decisions, cybersecurity and CISO governance policies ranked first, cited as a top-two criterion by 35% of respondents. AI access and flexibility ranked second at 26%. The report notes that when AI's influence on adjacent factors, including cost predictability, infrastructure control and data security, is considered, AI emerges as the single largest aggregate driver of deployment decisions.

The report draws on responses from senior and executive-level legal technology decision-makers at law firms, in-house legal departments, legal service providers and advisory firms across the United States. An independent companion survey of 60 practitioners conducted in partnership with the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) reached the same conclusions: 45% of ACEDS members already run private or on-premises eDiscovery in some form and nearly half expect to take a hybrid approach within 24 months.

"The buyers we surveyed have made their position clear: they want AI capability and deployment control, and they see every reason to have both," said Harmon. "As AI models evolve and data volumes climb, the organizations that lock themselves into a single vendor's infrastructure will find it increasingly difficult to adapt. The buyers in this survey are building for that reality now and Reveal Private Deployment was purpose-built to meet them there."

Reveal Private Deployment delivers full feature parity with Reveal's platform and supports proprietary, fine-tuned and third-party AI models within a single environment. It runs across private cloud and hybrid configurations in the U.S. and EMEA, giving legal teams direct control over data residency and AI model selection. Deployment flexibility and AI model independence are built into the architecture from the ground up.

The 2026 eDiscovery Buyers Report is available at www.revealdata.com/guides/2026-ediscovery-buyers-report.

About Reveal

Reveal is a leading AI-powered platform for eDiscovery, document review, legal hold, and investigations. Its best-in-class suite of products includes Logikcull, Onna, Reveal Hold, Reveal Enterprise, and Brainspace. Reveal's software combines technology and human guidance to transform structured and unstructured data into actionable insight, helping law firms, corporations, government agencies, and service providers uncover useful information faster. For more, visit revealdata.com.