How AI Is Changing Trial Preparation and Presentation Technology

Artificial intelligence is changing both trial preparation and trial presentation technology by helping legal teams review testimony and medical records, organize exhibits, and develop early versions of presentation materials. AI-assisted search and analysis can surface relevant passages and draft chronologies that attorneys and trial-support professionals can refine into visuals, exhibit sequences, and deposition clips.

Legal AI can make parts of trial preparation and presentation more efficient, but it does not replace the trial team's judgment and experience. Attorneys and trial-support professionals still determine what the record supports, what to emphasize, and how to communicate information to a judge or jury. A passage identified by AI still needs context. A draft timeline needs source checks. Every approved element must also work with the software and equipment used in court. Effective AI use depends on a clear process from initial analysis through verification and live execution.

Where Is AI Entering the Trial Presentation Workflow?

Transcript and Deposition Review

AI can help legal teams search testimony by issue, review summaries, and identify potential admissions or inconsistencies for closer examination. These capabilities can narrow the range of materials attorneys review when planning witness examinations or selecting testimony for presentation.

Lexitas offers AI deposition summaries through Deposition Insights™. The related Deposition Insights+ platform adds AI-powered queries, analysis across multiple depositions, and tools for identifying contradictions and key admissions, with linked page-and-line citations for verification.

Those citations give reviewers a route back to the testimony. Counsel still needs to read the surrounding exchange: Different answers may reflect different questions, timeframes, or qualifications rather than a meaningful contradiction.

Medical Record Review

Medical records can be another major source set during trial preparation. AI-assisted review can help legal teams work through large record collections and organize information for closer examination, while attorneys remain responsible for determining its relevance, context, and use.

Lexitas also offers Record Insights®, an AI-enabled medical chronology that extracts medical information and organizes it into a searchable, chronological summary. For matters involving substantial medical records, it can provide a more structured starting point for reviewing medical evidence during trial preparation.

As with deposition summaries, the output should lead reviewers back to the underlying source material. Counsel should verify the records before relying on a chronology, summary, or identified pattern in trial preparation or presentation.

Demonstratives and Visual Development

Generative AI can assist with the source material and concepts behind a demonstrative. A draft chronology or issue-organized summary can provide a starting point for a timeline, chart, or diagram. Legal teams can also explore alternative layouts before committing to a finished graphic.

For example, a team might organize a draft timeline by date, then consider grouping the same events by project phase. Reviewers would need to confirm that both versions preserve the sequence and accurately distinguish documented events from disputed interpretations. Graphics professionals can then develop the approved content into a visual presentation.

Exhibit Organization and Presentation Preparation

AI-assisted search can help teams locate documents by subject and organize potentially relevant material around issues in the litigation. Capabilities depend on the platform and the files it can process; teams should confirm whether a search covers the full source collection.

Finding a document begins the preparation process. Reviewers still need to confirm the correct version, completeness, confidentiality status, and intended use. Trial-support staff can then prepare the approved exhibit with consistent labels, references, and display copies so the presentation team can retrieve it reliably.

Video and Multimedia Preparation

AI-assisted transcript review can identify passages worth checking against the deposition video. Attorneys can review the surrounding testimony and decide which portions warrant designation and preparation, subject to objections and applicable rulings.

The next steps involve synchronization, editing, and preparation for playback. Lexitas’ video deposition technology supports synchronized video and transcripts, searchable review, clip creation, and export to trial presentation software. Its video-editing services can prepare clips from specified page-and-line references and start and stop words.

Before use, the team should confirm that each clip preserves the approved testimony and plays correctly alongside any associated exhibit or callout.

What Can AI Improve in Trial Presentation Technology?

Faster Review and Iteration

AI can reduce the manual work involved in locating passages and assembling early summaries. That gives teams a starting point for review and revision, with any time benefit depending on the quality of the source material and the checking required.

An effective process keeps source references attached as content changes. Revising a timeline entry or shortening a summary should prompt another check of the supporting passage, particularly if the edit shifts the emphasis or meaning.

Managing Complex Information

Trial preparation often involves connections across transcripts, documents, graphics, and video. Within supported source collections, AI-assisted queries can help teams explore those connections and identify material for a presentation sequence.

For example, counsel could investigate testimony about a particular notice alongside the corresponding correspondence. The useful result is a set of source references to evaluate together. The team then determines whether those materials support the proposed sequence and whether additional context belongs beside them.

More Flexible Presentation Preparation

AI-assisted drafting can help teams explore different ways to organize the same verified information. A chronological presentation and an issue-based presentation may emphasize different relationships, even when both draw from the same record.

Treat these alternatives as working drafts. Counsel should select the approach that fits the argument and applicable rulings, while trial-support professionals refine the layout and pacing. Keep approved versions separate from working files so an earlier draft does not enter the live presentation.

What Still Requires Human Judgment and Verification?

Accuracy Against the Record

Generative AI can produce plausible but unsupported information, omit qualifications, or combine facts incorrectly. NIST’s Generative AI Profile identifies these confabulation and information-integrity risks and emphasizes the need for verifiable, traceable information.

Review each quotation against the transcript or original document. Check dates, participants, calculations, and chronology entries against their sources. For visuals, examine labels, scales, cropping, and arrows that could imply an unsupported relationship. A valid citation does not establish that the accompanying interpretation is accurate.

Context and Legal Strategy

Attorneys remain responsible for deciding how testimony and exhibits support the case theory, what qualifications must accompany them, and which material should be emphasized before a judge or jury.

A useful review question is whether the proposed presentation remains accurate when the audience sees the surrounding evidence. A short quotation may be exact yet incomplete; a timeline may list correct dates while suggesting a causal relationship that the record does not establish. The review should address both factual accuracy and the meaning conveyed by the presentation.

Confidentiality and Data Handling

Before uploading litigation materials, legal teams should understand who can access the information, where and how long it is retained, and whether prompts, files, or outputs may be used for model training. Review the platform’s terms and controls against the matter’s confidentiality obligations and protective orders.

ABA Formal Opinion 512 addresses competence, confidentiality, and other professional duties when lawyers use generative AI. It interprets the ABA Model Rules; teams should also consult the rules and ethics guidance governing their jurisdiction, including whether the proposed use requires client consent.

Court and Evidentiary Requirements

Internal AI-assisted preparation, an illustrative aid, and material offered as evidence involve different questions. The team should identify the intended use before finalizing the presentation.

In federal proceedings, Federal Rules of Evidence 107 and 901 address illustrative aids and authentication, respectively. Rule 107 distinguishes illustrative aids from evidence. When material is offered as evidence, counsel must assess applicable authentication and admissibility requirements; AI involvement does not resolve those questions.

Check the governing rules, the assigned judge’s orders, and case-specific presentation or disclosure requirements. Avoid assuming that an AI-related requirement for one court or type of filing applies to every trial presentation.

What Should Legal Teams Verify Before AI-Assisted Materials Reach the Courtroom?

Use a final review to connect substantive approval with technical readiness:

Recheck affected items after substantive edits, new rulings, or changes to the presentation sequence. Record which version counsel approved and which files the technician should use.

Why Trial Technology Still Needs Experienced Human Support

An approved presentation needs people who can prepare the equipment, manage the files, and respond as proceedings unfold. Trial technicians, often called hot seat operators, retrieve exhibits, create callouts, coordinate synchronized deposition clips, and manage video and audio playback while attorneys focus on the examination or argument.

Preparation should include checking presentation software, display compatibility, sound, and backup options. Last-minute changes also require coordination: Counsel determines what may be shown, and the technical team updates and tests the approved material. If playback fails or the presentation order changes, troubleshooting and contingency planning become part of live execution.

Lexitas Trial Services supports this work through trial technicians, graphics and timelines, exhibit preparation, multimedia editing, equipment setup, and courtroom presentation support. Its equipment services include court coordination, technical support, and backup equipment. These capabilities connect reviewed materials with the practical demands of presenting them in court.

Preparing for the Next Generation of Trial Presentations

Evaluate AI trial technology at the task level: Identify the preparation work it can assist with, establish who verifies the output, and define how approved materials reach the presentation team. This gives attorneys and trial-support professionals a shared process for using new tools while retaining control over the record and courtroom delivery.

For help preparing graphics, exhibits, synchronized video, and courtroom technology, request trial services from Lexitas.