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The 2026 Future of AI & Technology Forum

Thursday September 17, 2026 | 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

The 2026 Future of AI & Technology Forum is built around real conversations, use cases, and decision‑making moments facing legal and professional services leaders today.

This year’s program, in the heart of Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, will bring attendees inside the workflows, governance choices, talent questions, and economic trade‑offs shaping AI adoption across the industry. You will hear directly from practitioners who are building AI into their firms and making tough, real decisions along the way.

Through expert discussions, peer conversations, and interactive sessions, this forum helps you cut through the noise and better understand what AI means for your organization. #TRIAI26.

Read Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 AI in Professional Services Report ahead of the program.

Event Details

Chicago, IL

$495.00

For questions about this event, please call 1-800-308-1700, ext. 1 or email us at TRIsales@thomsonreuters.com

What you will gain

  • Clear direction on where AI fits into your strategy—and where it doesn’t.
  • Real examples of how firms are using AI across workflows, governance, and talent.
  • Honest conversations with peers facing the same challenges and decisions.
  • A clearer view ahead so you can focus on changes that matter most.

Recommended for

  • C-level strategy & decision makers
  • Managing partners & principals
  • Managers & directors
  • Tech & AI professionals

Faculty

More Information

Agenda

Venue

Sponsors

Downloads

Event agenda

(all times local)

Thursday September 17, 2026

TimeTopic
8:30 am to 9:15 am Breakfast & registration
9:15 am to 9:30 am Opening remarks & AI in Professional Services Report presentation

Join us as we dive into the latest datafrom the 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, produced byThomson Reuters Institute.

 

Rawia Ashraf, Head of Product, CoCounsel Transactional & GCO,

9:30 am to 10:30 am The state of AI & technology

As emerging technologies move from experimentation to embedded infrastructure, professional services leaders are being forced to make faster, higher‑stakes calls about where and how to place their bets. AI now sits at the center of debates on regulation, data governance, client expectations, and talent, reshaping both the economics and the ethics of how work gets done. This session takes a forward-looking view of the 2026-27 technology landscape, separating durable shifts from short-lived noise and examining how policy, platform consolidation, and new AI-native tools are likely to reshape the market. You’llgain a clearer picture of the trends that matter, the risks thatcan’tbe delegated, and the strategic questions firms need to answer now to be ready for the next wave of innovation.

10:30 am to 10:50 am Break
10:50 am to 11:50 am Workshop/game: quantifying your AI strategy

Gather up for an interactive session that turns AI from buzzword to bottom-line impact. In this hands-on game, facilitator(s)will guide youthrough professionalservices scenarios where you’llestimateandvalidate time savedandvalue createdthrough various use cases. See how yourAI strategy and usage can be measured and quantified. Together, you’llpressure-test whento deployagents, automated assistants, prompt builders, and chatbots, and where human judgment must remain firmly in the loop. Through team-based challenges and rapid debriefs, participants willwalk away with a sharper sense ofthe most efficient AI utilizationtactics.Expect team challenges and a bit of friendly competition as you discern a quantifiable outlook on the role of AI in real client work and internal operations.

11:50 am to 1:00 pm Networking lunch
1:00 pm to 1:40 pm Fireside chat: inside the firms getting AI right

In this detail-orientedfiresidechat,two AI experts will divulge the finer details of cultivating a credible, durable AI strategy inside a professional services firm. Instead of abstract visions of “digital transformation,”they’ll talk through how they’reapproaching thiswork day to day, focusing on: setting foundations around data and governance, weaving AI into legacy workflows, choosing which ideas to pilot first, and making sure investments line up with firm economics and client expectations. Expect a candid, focused look at what has genuinely worked, what hasn’tlanded the way they hoped, and how their teams are building comfort and confidence around experimentation, risk, and change at scale.

1:40 pm to 2:00 pm Break
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Keynote presentation
3:00 pm to 3:20 pm Break
3:20 pm to 4:00 pm Fishbowl: candid dialogue on the future of AI

To close the day, step into a high-energy fishbowl session where the agenda belongs to the room. Throughout the forum, attendees will have the opportunity tosubmitpointed, real-world questions about AI, automation, and emerging tools in professional services—from operating models and commercialization to talent, ethics, and vendor strategy. In this finale, panelists from leading firms andprofessionals pioneering in the software industrywill draw questions at random and respond on the spot. The result is an unscripted, intellectually rigorous dialogue that surfaces live case studies, contrarian perspectives, and hard-won lessons youwon’tfind in polished decks—an opportunity to road-test your own assumptionsin a culmination of the day’s insights.

4:00 pm to 5:00 pm Closing remarks & reception

Please join us for cocktails and light bites as we bring the day’s conversations to a close.

 

Rawia Ashraf, Head of Product, CoCounsel Transactional & GCO,

Loft on Lake

1366 W Lake St, Chicago, IL 60607
Fulton Market - West Loop, Chicago

Hotel Accommodations

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of recommended hotels and rental stays near Loft on Lake, with a variety of options in the West Loop and Fulton Market area. Please note that accommodations are not included in the registration fee and will need to be arranged individually by each attendee. You can view the full list here:.

 

Getting Here & Parking

Free street parking is available around the venue. A public parking garage is also located just behind the venue at Ada Street and Fulton Street. If you’re taking public transportation, the #9 Ashland bus and the Green and Pink Line trains are just a short walk away at Lake Street and Ashland Avenue.

 

Registration Deadline:Friday, September 4.

Sponsors