Artificial intelligence is moving at a pace few organizations have ever experienced, but how much of today's AI adoption is driven by real business value versus fear of being left behind? This week on That Tech Pod, we sit down with Steven Walchek, Founder and CEO of Liminal, for a conversation about what separates companies that are genuinely transforming with AI from those simply putting on a show.

Steven shares how growing up around entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley shaped his approach to building companies, his experiences helping scale innovation at Amazon Web Services and FIS, and the lessons learned from launching multiple startups and achieving three successful exits. Along the way, he explains why every major technology wave creates both incredible opportunities and very expensive mistakes.

We also dig into why so many organizations fall into "innovation theater," whether executives are adopting AI because of business strategy or fear of missing the next big thing, and which technologies from the past two decades proved to be underrated or wildly overhyped. Steven offers an honest perspective on where enterprise AI is heading, what regulated industries need to get right, and the AI investments companies may look back on with regret just a few years from now.

If you're trying to separate AI hype from lasting business value, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Steven Walchek is the Founder and CEO of Liminal, where he helps large regulated enterprises securely scale generative AI with the right balance of governance, visibility, and multi-model access. He’s spent more than 15 years building and scaling companies across fintech, cloud, and enterprise software, focused on turning emerging technologies into real operational advantage. Before Liminal, Steven was EVP and Chief Innovation Officer at FIS, where he led corporate venture initiatives, launched new business lines, and built multiple subsidiary companies. Earlier in his career at Amazon Web Services, he worked on early machine learning and cloud infrastructure initiatives while helping expand the partner ecosystem and drive new revenue growth. He’s also been involved in three successful exits, including DebtMarket, the fintech company he co-founded and later sold to Intercontinental Exchange. Today, he focuses on helping regulated industries adopt AI at scale without losing control, security, or trust.

Laura has been looking forward to this one for a while. On this episode of That Tech Pod, we sit down with Justin Silverman, the Chief Operating Officer of Legal Solutions at Mitratech, to talk about what it really takes to build and scale enterprise software in the age of AI.

Justin has led product organizations across legal technology, insurance technology, and enterprise SaaS, giving him a unique perspective on how different industries adopt technology, where product strategy succeeds or fails, and why organizational leadership becomes just as important as product innovation as companies grow. We discuss the surprising similarities and differences between building software for lawyers versus insurance professionals, the balance between product decisions and people decisions, and what changes when you're responsible for one of the largest legal software portfolios in the industry.

The conversation also takes a practical look at AI beyond the marketing headlines. Justin shares how Mitratech is approaching AI both inside the business and for customers, where employees are still hesitant to embrace AI in their daily work, and whether AI has actually made product management easier or simply raised expectations for everyone involved. We also explore why legal spending continues to rise despite decades of technology-driven efficiency gains and the costly mistakes software companies make when chasing growth instead of solving real customer problems. If you're interested in product leadership, AI adoption, legal technology, or simply how large software organizations make strategic decisions, this episode offers an inside look from someone helping shape the future of enterprise legal software.

Justin Silverman is Chief Operating Officer of Legal Solutions at Mitratech, leading Product Management, Engineering, and Operations across the Legal Solutions division, with responsibility for bringing AI-powered solutions to customers and driving AI adoption across Mitratech's own operations. In March 2021, he joined Mitratech from Vertafore, a software provider in the insurance industry, where he led product management for their insurance agency management system business. Prior to Vertafore, he was VP of Product Management and General Manager of LexisNexis CounselLink, an e-billing and matter management solution. Justin's experience spans growing B2B software businesses, solving complex customer problems, and driving performance across large, cross-functional teams.

This week on That Tech Pod, we sit down with Matt Mahon, Vice President of Client Solutions at Level Legal, to talk about what's really happening across the legal technology landscape in 2026. Matt shares what attorneys are asking for today, why AI hasn't driven costs down as quickly as many predicted, and how legal teams should be preparing for emerging evidence sources like AI assistants, chatbots, and ephemeral communications.

We also discuss whether traditional eDiscovery pricing models still make sense, the assumptions the industry will soon leave behind, and what it takes to build defensible, evidence-first workflows in an AI-powered world. Matt explains why AI is transforming legal work without eliminating the complexity that drives litigation, and why organizations that focus on governance and strategy will ultimately see the biggest gains. We also explore the biggest trends shaping the industry this year, what excites him most about where legal technology is headed, and where he believes the market is still falling short.

Finally, Matt celebrates Level Legal's new Band 3 ranking in the 2026 Chambers Litigation Support Guide for USA Nationwide eDiscovery providers and previews his upcoming Electronic Discovery Reference Model webinar on digital evidence and recent case law.

Learn more about Level Legal's Chambers ranking:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/level-legal-earns-ranking-in-chambers-and-partner-2026-litigation-support-guide-for-ediscovery-302809787.html

Register for the EDRM webinar, "Digital Evidence: Mapping the Landscape with Case Insights": https://levellegal.com/resources/

Matt Mahon is the Vice President of Client Solutions at Level Legal. Matt draws on decades of experience in eDiscovery to help clients develop bespoke solutions to their problems. Matt regularly shares his expertise and thought leadership, speaking at industry conferences, CLE events, law firm trainings, and more. He holds several industry certifications, including CEDS from ACEDs, IGP from ARMA International, and is a RelativityOne Certified Pro and Relativity Certified Sales Pro. Matt also serves as the President of the ACEDS Jacksonville chapter.