7 Tips for Kickstarting Your Legal Tech Journey
Last month, Law Squared + Law Ninjas hosted their first-ever UK GC Summit for an action-packed day of thought-provoking discussion and debate. During a session on Artificial Intelligence (AI), our panellists addressed what in-house legal teams can do now to embrace AI and other emerging legal technology tools.
Why You Need to Start Your Digital Transformation Now
In September 2023, Bain & Company published a report titled You’re Out of Time to Wait and See on AI. In today’s fast-moving environment, it argues, adopting a wait-and-see posture is as good as being left behind.
It’s tempting to forgo the advice of this report, and the many others like it. Why not let the in-house legal teams of rival companies put in the hard work to identify, test, and verify the very best legal AI solutions on the market? It’s a strategy that’s sure to save time, effort, and resources, as well as being far less costly.
The reality - as Bain’s study suggests - is somewhat different. For starters, in-house legal teams that fail to embrace AI or other emerging digital tools, run the risk of being left far behind. To reap all of the benefits that the technology has to offer, including increased operational efficiencies, streamlined workflows, and improved employee satisfaction, it’s important to be a part of the whole journey, witnessing its evolution, experimenting with early iterations, and learning more about how it works.
“The real danger of a wait-and-see mentality is that it can take ages [for new technologies to reach full maturity] and you can miss out on a lot,” said Rohan Paramesh, General Counsel, Pixel United. “Don't wait for a winning solution while others go through the hard yards of figuring it out. You lose out on a lot of learning opportunities that way.”
Early tech adoption is also great for brand reputation, supporting employee attraction and retention, and boosting client and customer relations. “Legal teams are often seen as last adopters,” said Paramesh. “Being forward-thinking, being at the cutting edge, that’s a good look for us.”
Finally, it’s worth remembering that AI is coming for in-house legal teams, whether they like it or not. A new report from ContractPodAi found that more than half of in-house legal professionals are encouraged by their company’s leadership to use GenAI tools, while more than a third require it. Far better to welcome the change, than to put up a futile resistance.
With all of this in mind, here are seven tips to kickstart your digital uplift:
1. Start Small
You’ve probably overestimated where your peers are in their digital transformation journeys. Yes, transformative AI-powered solutions are the holy grail for in-house legal teams, but the vast majority of them are experimenting with a range of more modest tools and assessing how they might drive small, incremental gains.
GC Summit attendees were reassured by our panellists that it’s ok to start small. “A number of basic daily tasks can be carried out by AI solutions,” said Dipika Aggarwal, General Counsel, Spoon Guru. “This includes proofreading, summarising and analysing contracts, reviewing drafts, invoicing, and legal research.” Leveraging the technology to perform tasks of this nature frees up the time and energy of in-house legal professionals, improving their wellbeing and enabling them to focus on the more complex - and often more fulfilling - areas of law.
2. Focus on Outcomes
Fools rush in… to implement cutting-edge AI or other leading edge technology solutions without careful consideration of business needs and objectives.
Our panellists agreed that AI-powered tools will only prove beneficial when in-house legal teams take the time to understand the problems that need solving. “Don't buy the technology first and then see how to use it,” said Shaz Aziz, Client Solutions Director, Neota. Instead, conduct an internal investigation, speak to key stakeholders, understand where AI can drive value for your team, and then begin the hunt for an appropriate solution.
Don’t forget to investigate the existing technologies in place across the organisation; there might be opportunities for a seamless integration.
It’s a sentiment shared by Law Squared’s own Digital + Transformation lead, Nam Truong: “To extract maximum value from technology investment, a considered, actionable adoption plan is required, along with the operational capability to support it.”
Nam’s guidance for GCs eager to demonstrate value is to: “Hold off on immediate action and take the time to connect and understand your starting point. Measure twice, cut once.” Read more from Nam here.
3. Establish an Internal Governance Policy
An internal governance policy for AI usage sets the standard for how the technology can - and should - be used across the business.
Dipika Aggarwal, General Counsel, Spoon Guru suggested that a policy of this kind ought to include an inventory of pre-approved tools and their use purposes - which can be implemented at will - as well as clear guidance on how to secure approval for additional solutions.
“Of course, policies will depend on the size of the company, the size of the team, and the type of work that will be carried out,” she said. It’s always important to put the right safeguards in place and look at the different use cases and risks for each tool.
GCs are encouraged to use Law Squared’s free AI in the Workplace Policy to help employees confidently explore and deploy AI-tools, whilst ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place to protect intellectual property and confidential information. Download it here.
4. Conduct Market Research
“I can’t know what [AI knowledge] gaps I have if I know nothing about the tools that are available to me,” said Paramesh.
As investment in legal tech increases exponentially, in-house legal teams must get to grips with the legal technology market; taking the time to understand the different solutions on offer, how they work, and the requirements for implementing and using them. In doing so, the profession can make better use of their budgets and stay ahead of the curve.
When it comes to legal tech, Nam agrees that it’s often a case of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know: Having a partner who can help legal teams sort through the clutter and noise, understand their core challenges and build a data-based business case for investment, is invaluable.”
5. Train Your Team
Lack of in-house expertise was cited as the biggest barrier to AI adoption in IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index 2023 and applies more broadly to legal technology. Fortunately, this can be easily rectified with the use of simple low-code tools, designed to bridge the AI skills gap by enabling all workers to use, train, and fine-tune their companies’ AI solutions.
To ensure the widespread adoption of a new tool, it’s equally important to secure employee buy-in. This, our panellists argue, often boils down to creating a sense of shared ownership. “When all team members understand a new tool and the benefits it offers, their sense of ownership increases and they become more invested in using it,” Paramesh said. In addition, when employees are included in their organisation’s AI journey, their feelings of fear and scepticism subside.
6. Train Your Tools
AI solutions are largely what you make of them; the more time you put in to fine-tune them, the more value you get out in return. “After implementing a new tool, it won't immediately be fit-for-purpose,” said Laura Ashworth-Cape, General Counsel, Southbank Centre. “You need to train it, and use it, and adapt it.”
7. Lean on Others
In-house legal teams will struggle to realise their legal technology vision without support and investment from business leaders. Both are difficult to attain, however, when budgets are tight and the benefits of a proposed legal tech solution are undefined.
To overcome this challenge, our panellists recommended that legal teams collaborate with other functions to demonstrate a tool’s company-wide benefits. “If you can determine - and showcase - the use cases for HR, Finance, and so on, it might make it more worthwhile for your company to invest in that particular product,” said Ashworth-Cape. While there are plenty of niche legal solutions on offer, it may be just as beneficial, and likely somewhat easier, to leverage more generalised technologies.
Sharing experiences with, and learning from, other teams across the business is also useful. As well as enabling in-house legal teams to identify trusted solutions - as recommended by their colleagues - this is a great way to exchange tips for implementing, training, and using new technologies.