What does “productivity” with AI look like?

Following on from our last Newsletter, the ‘theme’ is ‘all things productivity, with legal compliance at the heart of what we do’.

I’ve noticed this past week that there’s a lot of talk on use of AI, particularly what Big Consulting practices and Big Law Firms are using, and why. There’s certainly a strong push to adopt and use AI. The rationale behind this is less admin resource drain, faster delivery and greater profitability.

Few, if any however, talk about helping clients use AI safely to become more productive. Why?

Well, because that would be committing 'BigLaw' heresy and giving clients what they want as quickly as possible, at a very affordable price and helping them leverage their own information.  This breaks the well-known 'BigLaw' business model which keeps them in the manner they are accustomed.

And that is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.

But what if we could:

1.      Adopt automation with safe AI that builds a legal ‘brain’ for clients, and includes both junior and experienced lawyers, handling everything from routine contract review and compliance checks through to complex advisory work?

2. Provide clear, consistent and useful legal advice proactively, in time, or before issues arise?

3. Collaborate on outcomes that can be embedded in a contract and help government dramatically improve its ICT project success rate?

4.      Provide a ‘control tower’ for in-house teams to allow lawyers to automate legal process deeply and at scale, using high quality data from within the business, with time to consider exactly where to leverage judgement and manage compliance risks?

5. Improve the way that procurement works so that government is an informed purchaser, can understand the vendors in the market and see its supply chains clearly, without fear of probity?

6.      Accelerate and improve government RFQ’s, so that they are informative, clear and can be evaluated efficiently, equitably and meet all probity requirements?

7. Ensure at all times that the human is not replaced, but retains full agency over the work they do, which is what makes the work worth doing.

We can do all of this…and more

I sat with TBF Digital this week to experience the ‘what if we could’ from an in-house government lawyers perspective. I saw first-hand what automation and AI can produce, particularly the ability to produce a ‘legal brain’ for in-house lawyers, the ability to collaborate with business areas, to pull and use high quality information and provide timely and consistent legal outputs. The feeling of a ‘control tower’ was frankly sensational.

I walked away feeling empowered and that I had just ‘bought’ the gift of time.

So then, what does one do with the ‘gift of time’?

As mentioned in my last newsletter, technology alone is not enough, the human dimension is essential. Whilst workflows, automation and AI are no doubt important, time that is gained must be invested in strategic thinking. For example, with contracts in particular, time must be invested in relationships between the parties.  A contract should really be nothing more than guidance on the relationship, or a pre-nuptial arrangement. This is where judgment comes home and the outcome is a happy union.

I attended a Legal CPD seminar this week where the lawyer presenting characterised ICT vendors as rigid, uncompromising, expensive and difficult, amongst other words. The lawyer articulated how ‘Contracts are King’ and how to beat vendors at ‘their game’.

This made me think: what happened to the informed purchaser requirement, and relational contracts that get the outcome the purchaser needs? When did we stop applying commonsense and start playing the win-at-all-costs game? An outcome not met, an abatement applied, a frustrated contract discussion: these are symptoms of a failure of proper contracting, and a failure of all involved.

Proper management of contracts starts before the procurement is issued to market and continues beyond expiry/termination of a contract.

If we can automate the admin drag and remove the win-at-all-costs mentality, we can apply human judgment where it truly matters, at the relational level. A little vulnerability goes a long way to getting a good outcome, and that is something AI simply cannot replicate.

All of this is achievable with automation and AI used purposefully, and human judgment applied where it counts. Tomorrow’s in-house lawyers and clients are moving in this direction. The question is not whether this future arrives, but whether Law Firms help shape this for clients and add the strategic lens or simply keep their business models turning.  I for one am fully in the trenches with automation and AI, as there’s no other place to be when you see what’s possible and win time back.

Next up in our Newsletter Series: can we use automation and AI to improve ICT project outcomes for government? Where do we begin?

What do you think? Let me know.