Relativity CEO Phil Saunders used a media briefing at Relativity Fest in Chicago to reaffirm the company's previously announced deadline: starting Jan. 1, 2028, no net new matters may be hosted on legacy Relativity Server. He said the policy is not to end Server's life but to ensure all new matters go to the cloud platform, Relativity aiR.
Saunders described partners as falling into three groups: those fully aligned, those "not aligned" due to capital-expense business models, and hybrids. He warned that non-aligned partners should expect to be run over, while aligned partners will win. He noted that nearly 84% of annual recurring revenue was in Relativity aiR as of end of June, up from 75% when the deadline was announced.
On AI, Saunders said Relativity is spending more time with frontier labs such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google than with legal AI companies like Harvey and Legora, though he said those companies are valuable and not going away. He expects at least one frontier model on the desktop of every law firm and company. Separately, the Gavel document automation acquisition will enter advanced access this year, and Saunders said the confidential IPO filing does not mean the company is for sale.