Here’s my top 10:
1. Emails that draft themselves
- One GC has created an AI Agent to read his emails, prioritise and draft responses and review attached contracts. This includes drawing on internal playbooks, prompts, contract templates and policies.
- Particularly helpful if you work for an international business and start your day with a full inbox.
2. Data analytics that you don’t have to collate
- Another GC created an AI Agent to analyse and report on team performance. This included analysing lawyer response rates and common roadblocks, comparing workloads (to better distribute the load) and identifying key internal clients and parts of the business under-serviced.
- Most organisations report in numbers. AI can do this analysis and present it dynamically without requiring team members to manually input spreadsheets or create time-consuming presentations.
3. Start with the end in mind
- A common theme discussed was how AI initiatives can quickly become fragmented if no one owns them.
- Matthew Eddy, from Everingham Legal, emphasised the importance of creating an AI roadmap which clearly defined how AI should be built out at your organisation.
- This should include defining priorities, assigning ownership, mapping processes, identifying quick wins and building governance alongside adoption.
4. Enable your people
- Others shared that the biggest challenge isn’t technology – it’s building AI capability.
- This includes tailored training and experimentation, identifying and recruiting AI champions and building out the playbooks, prompt libraries and opportunities to use AI in day-to-day work.
- “You can’t expect high AI adoption if your people don’t have the skills.”
5. Recruit the right skills and mindset
- Refocusing recruitment on lawyers with AI experience and/or an openness to learn.
- Ensuring your attraction strategy can talk to AI development pathways so that potential employees know they won’t fall behind by joining your organisation.
6. Use AI prompts to identify knowledge gaps
- Auditing authorised AI usage to see what questions your people are asking AI. A great strategy to identify knowledge gaps and create targeted training programs.
7. Work with your external lawyers to manage costs without compromising quality
- Ask your external counsel how their teams use AI and whether they have different pricing models based on limited/zero AI usage, hybrid or high AI usage.
- Having open conversations with your external lawyers helps you manage costs without compromising quality.
8. Ask AI where to start and start small
- Build simple AI solutions using ChatGPT, Custom GPTs and existing Microsoft tools.
- You might be surprised how quickly you can build useful AI assistants at low cost before investing in larger platforms or proprietary technologies.
9. Run a proof of concept pilot
- Before procuring long-term tech solutions, try negotiating a proof of concept pilot.
- Use this to test real use cases, get feedback from users, measure outcomes before making a long-term commercial commitment.
10. Focus on data sovereignty
- The final theme that came through both sessions was the emphasis on data sovereignty, for all businesses, but particularly those in highly regulated industries.
- Legal teams need to be at the forefront of creating governance frameworks and guardrails to protect their organisations.
- Legal leaders repeatedly emphasised the importance of confidentiality, security, human oversight and clear decision-making frameworks.
- The strongest AI programs aren’t necessarily those with the most advanced tools; they’re the ones with the clearest governance.
