[EDRM Editor’s Note: This article was first published here on September 30, 2025, and EDRM is grateful to Rob Robinson, editor and managing director of Trusted Partner ComplexDiscovery, for permission to republish.]

ComplexDiscovery Editor’s Note: Confidence is more than a feeling—it’s a signal. The 2H 2025 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, now in its 38th edition, gives cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery professionals a chance to measure that signal across sectors and time. Open through November 15, this trusted instrument provides a rapid-read view of operational conditions, emerging risks, and the direction of AI adoption, enabling more informed decisions on hiring, investment, and project sequencing. With over a decade of historical data and a design built for consistency and clarity, the survey continues to be a key planning tool for leaders navigating a dynamic data and discovery landscape.

The 2H 2025 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey—the 38th edition—is open today, Sept. 30, 2025, through Nov. 15, 2025.

ComplexDiscovery OÜ, in collaboration with EDRM, has launched the latest eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey and is inviting professionals across cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery to share their insights into the current market landscape. The instrument is concise by design yet consistent enough to track change across cycles. It takes just a few minutes and asks how conditions look today, where they are likely headed over the next six months, which single risk is most pressing, and how teams are operating against finance and technology markers that matter—revenue and profit direction, awareness of Days Sales Outstanding, the direction of monthly recurring revenue, and the practical status of generative AI and large language model use.

Take the 2H 2025 Survey Now – or read on for context and insights from the most recent results.

Why Business Confidence Matters

The survey focuses on business confidence because confidence—stated plainly as “good,” “normal,” or “bad” today and “better,” “the same,” or “worse” tomorrow—collects the planning signals leaders use to hire, price, invest, and sequence projects. The question set translates sentiment into operational choices, creating a shared dataset that peers can reference without having to wade through conjecture.

This 2H 2025 edition continues a program now in its tenth year. Since its launch in 2016, the survey has captured 3,528 responses across 37 prior editions, averaging roughly 95 respondents per cycle. In 2025, ComplexDiscovery and EDRM moved to a semi-annual cadence, keeping the read current while reducing frequency to prevent fatigue.

What 1H 2025 Revealed

The preceding 1H 2025 edition, which ran from April 10 through May 3, secured 77 responses through targeted outreach. Results set a steady tone with practical nuance:

Current sentiment and outlook: A majority—51.95 percent—described conditions as “normal,” while 37.66 percent called them “good.” Looking six months out, 31.17 percent anticipated improvement, and just under half expected stability.

Top risks: Budget pressure ranked first at 36.36 percent, followed by the growing diversity of electronically stored information at 22.08 percent and expanding data volumes at 18.18 percent.

AI adoption accelerates: A majority, 57.14 percent, reported generative AI and LLM deployment underway, with improved service or product delivery as the most expected benefit. Respondents flagged accuracy as the leading concern at 24.68 percent, followed by clarity on return on investment at 22.08 percent, implementation costs at 19.48 percent, and skills and compliance at 14.29 percent each. That push and pull—momentum and measurement—reflects an industry advancing automation while demanding evidence and governance.

Finance awareness: While 35.21 percent reported increasing monthly recurring revenue, 44.29 percent lacked a clear view of Days Sales Outstanding trends—pointing to the value of tracking cash flow and client distribution alongside growth.

Participation spanned the ecosystem. Software and services providers represented 40.26 percent of respondents, followed by law firms at 25.97 percent, consultancies at 11.69 percent, and corporations at 10.39 percent. The response base was predominantly U.S.-centric at 96.1 percent. Roles were balanced across tactical, operational, and executive tiers, helping the dataset capture both strategy and daily reality.

What We’re Asking in 2H 2025

The purpose of the 2H 2025 survey is to preserve continuity while updating the picture. For cybersecurity teams, the questions connect collaboration data, short-form messaging, and cloud telemetry to incident trends and downstream discovery needs. For information governance leaders, the survey frames where policy and retention should adapt without creating exposure. For eDiscovery operations, the instrument captures throughput, staffing, tooling, and the growing role of AI-assisted workflows, offering a way to compare what is planned with what is being delivered.

The ask is straightforward: take a few minutes to record the conditions you see, the outlook you expect, the single risk you are actively managing, and the status of your AI adoption. Before you begin, it’s helpful to confirm whether your monthly recurring revenue is trending up, down, or holding steady, and whether your team has clear visibility into Days Sales Outstanding. It also helps to identify whether your AI posture sits in evaluation, pilot, or deployment, and to note one example of a benefit realized or a gap that still needs work.

If you have contributed before, keep your role and region framing consistent to strengthen the time series. If you are new to the instrument, your perspective broadens the sample and improves the read for everyone.

ComplexDiscovery and EDRM will publish the results after the window closes, continuing a practice of presenting the data in a concise, comparable format that teams can use for planning and peer comparison. The value compounds each cycle because the questions remain stable enough to track change without adding noise.

Start Now

The survey is now open and will close on November 15, 2025. It takes minutes, and it travels further when you invite one colleague from a different function to participate—security and governance voices enrich the legal and operational view, and vice versa.

Start the 2H 2025 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey and add your experience to a dataset your peers read and reuse. What are you seeing right now on budgets, data, and AI that others should factor into planning for 2026?

Read the original article here.

About ComplexDiscovery OÜ

ComplexDiscovery OÜ is a highly recognized digital publication providing insights into cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery. Based in Estonia, ComplexDiscovery OÜ delivers nuanced analyses of global trends, technology advancements, and the legal technology sector, connecting intricate issues with the broader narrative of international business and current events. Learn more at ComplexDiscovery.com.

Additional Reading

• 1H 2025 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey Results Released by ComplexDiscovery OÜ and EDRM
• eDiscovery Surveys Archives – ComplexDiscovery

Source: ComplexDiscovery OÜ
Assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies per EDRM GAI and LLM Policy.