As law firms and professional services organisations increasingly explore AI tools, many are asking where to start. Here, TransPerfect Legal’s APAC senior director has outlined the key starting points and essential steps for first-time adopters looking to integrate these technologies effectively.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Tom Balmer, TransPerfect Legal’s Asia-Pacific senior director, outlined the essential starting points legal professionals should consider when adopting AI to ensure a smooth and effective integration into their workflows.
In the same episode, he explored the legal industry’s mixed reactions to AI, highlighting both the eagerness and the hesitation, and offered a firsthand look at how legal teams are navigating this rapidly evolving technology on the ground.
While many might assume the starting point is to dive straight into technology trials, Balmer emphasised that the first step should be to pause and assess where the greatest productivity gains can be achieved.
“The first question is to take a step back and look at what you’re doing in your day-to-day and see what is the [easiest] part to optimise what’s taking you the longest, what do you feel like could be done better,” he said.
Once priorities are identified, Balmer said that those seeking “easy wins” in AI implementation should engage external experts and draw on their experience.
“Then if you want really easy wins, go to a trusted external partner, go to someone like a TransPerfect who does this in our day-to-day and say, how would you make this more efficient?” he said.
Balmer noted that hesitation around AI adoption – and uncertainty about where to begin – often stems from a lack of understanding about how the technology works.
“The baseline reticence comes from a lack of understanding of what these tools do and what they actually are. Most people don’t know that an LLM isn’t referring to a database when you go to it. It’s predicting the next word. It’s all probability. Right. That’s why it hallucinates,” he said.
For legal professionals just beginning their AI journey, Balmer’s strongest advice is to ask questions and engage in discussions within their organisation before embarking on new initiatives, learning from the missteps and experiences of others.
“I think my advice would just be to ask the question, use external providers who have gone through this rigmarole of demos and pilots and all this kind of stuff or equally look internally,” he said.
“Has someone else in your organisation done this already? How are they doing it? Learn from them because there is always someone who has done this and have some learnings or at least knows of someone who does from another firm. There should be more collaboration on this stuff.”
