If you look at this year’s ABA Techshow advertising material, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were reading a comic book. Between the cartoon-style illustrations and the comic book-style captions and headings on the brochure and website, it’s clear what motif that the Techshow planners were going for was.

Perhaps that’s appropriate, given how quickly generative artificial intelligence tools have established a foothold in the legal industry. Like a superhero—or perhaps more accurately, a superhero’s sidekick—AI has helped save the day for a lot of lawyers.

Of course, comics also bring up another image for AI—one that isn’t so warm and fuzzy. So is generative AI more like Robin, Kato or Krypto the Superdog? Or is it more like Skynet, Brainiac or Ultron? Or maybe somewhere in between?

In this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, ABA Techshow 2026 co-chairs Brett Burney and Patrick Wright talk with the ABA Journal’s Victor Li about what to expect at this year’s event, which will take place from March 25 to 28 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago.

Burney is the founder of Burney Consultants in Ohio, which provides e-discovery consulting and litigation support and teaches lawyers how to use Mac computers in their everyday practice.

Wright is the managing partner of the Wright Firm, a family law practice in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area.