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their departments are either not ready nor
interested in AI technologies, while more
than 70 per cent of legal departments with
more than 11 lawyers believe their depart-
ments were receptive, revealed another re-
port by Thomson Reuters. But for alleged
technological luddites, those are still im-
pressive fi gures. Looked at another way, that
still means that more than one in three law
departments view AI deployment as a prior-
ity, with an additional 20 per cent consider-
ing an initiative over the next several years,
according to U.S.-based HBR Consulting.
"Where we're at is that companies are
increasingly turning their minds to the im-
plications of AI integration," says Carole
Piovesan, lead of the AI group at McCarthy
Tétrault LLP. In fact, legal departments, in
a growing number of cases, are leading the
charge. They are ideally positioned because
they are "lead users," to borrow a phrase
from Eric von Hippel of MIT from his
ground-breaking book The Sources of Inno-
vation. They are the ones who have a strong
incentive and who stand to profi t the most
by solving problems that they face, says
Richard Brait, general counsel at Siemens
Canada Ltd. Indeed, Brait says in-house
departments are "prime candidates" to be
the lead users in the legal industry by intro-
ducing process innovations that can solve
problems for their departments, lawyers
and business.
"An in-house department, when facing
important problems, can innovate and do
a much better job at innovating than legal
technology providers or law fi rms because
they are the ones who are going to profi t
from it," he says. That is an observation
A lot of these AI tools are in their infancy, and
they have certain limitations like any tool.
JAMES KOSA, WeirFoulds LLP
ILLUSTRATION:
GARY
NEILL
