Extract from Craig Donaldson and Allison Rosner’s article “General Counsel Who Don’t Embrace Artificial Intelligence Will Eventually Be Replaced”
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that will revolutionize our way of life and business as did the computer, the internet and cellphones. Blackstone refers to AI as the “megatrend of megatrends.” McKinsey predicts that by 2030, 30% of the hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated in large part due to generative AI. This has serious implications for general counsel and corporate legal departments.
According to a Thomson Reuters study, corporate law departments are very familiar with this megatrend but surprisingly only 11% of general counsel indicated that they are actually using or planning to use ChatGPT and generative AI within their legal department. This means a staggering 90% of general counsel have no intention of utilizing AI in their legal operations while the rest of the world explores the benefits of and utilizes this revolutionary technology.
This schism between corporate legal departments’ use of AI as compared to use of AI by the companies the law departments support presents a pressing issue. As companies find synergies, efficiencies, cost savings, creative solutions and speed to market through AI, where does that leave the legal department as a late adopter or non-adopter of AI? General counsel and law departments run the risk of losing touch with the business, failing to provide cost savings, being less responsive in a timely fashion and having highly paid lawyers do the work a machine could do more efficiently. According to Goldman Sachs, approximately 44% of legal tasks can be automated by using AI.
