While the hype around AI is undeniable, it’s easy to get caught up and feel overwhelmed by the flood of information. Here, two legal experts share how to move beyond the noise and turn AI into practical, achievable results.
Speaking on a recent episode of LawTech Talks, CJ Saretto, Axiom’s chief technology officer, and Heather Paterson, Legora’s go-to-market in APJ, shared insights on how in-house teams can cut through the hype around AI and achieve practical, measurable results.
In the same episode, the pair discussed the widening gap in AI adoption between law firms and in-house legal teams.
For Paterson, achieving meaningful results with AI isn’t about adopting tools for the sake of it – it begins with understanding where AI can genuinely make a difference within an organisation.
“I would always say get into the product and test it on real problems. You can’t say we need AI without thinking [about] where this is actually going to start? What is this solving?” Paterson said.
“Start with something that’s frustrating, that’s painful, that is difficult to get done and test it in the product. That’s how you’re going to see the real change and experiment with it.”
However, adopting AI is just the first step. Paterson emphasised the importance of rolling out these tools thoughtfully across the firm, while accommodating different levels of adoption and comfort with technology.
“But then the next piece of that puzzle is how do we move beyond the decision that we’ve made to commit to work on this project, if using AI and then implement it across our firm?” Paterson said.
“Because you’ll always have a subset of individuals that are totally leaning in, and then you’re also going to have a handful of people that are still printing all of their emails and keeping them stored in their office. So there’s that journey you have to take people on.”
The key, Paterson stressed, is meeting employees where they are in terms of their experience, comfort, and confidence with adopting AI, and guiding them carefully through incremental steps.
“You have to meet both personas where they’re at. For the person who may be a laggard on adopting new change, you have to meet them with something simple that’s going to,” Paterson said.
“That’s not meant to be patronising. These are incredibly smart people. But it’s like, hey, just crawl on this project before you’re running on something, and you’re going to have people that move through that journey at different paces.”
To move beyond the hype and achieve tangible results, Saretto recommended adopting low-risk approaches to experiment with AI within legal teams, including bringing in experienced individuals to share insights and train employees.
“I also think there are just low-risk ways of running these experiments inside your organisation. Bring someone in who has the experience and have them give it a shot and start to train up individuals on their learnings and help them take the next step,” Saretto said.
“Heather talked about meeting folks where they are. You need champions within your organisation, and if you don’t have them, you might need to bring some folks in.”
These champions, Saretto noted, play a crucial role not only in understanding the technology themselves but also in helping employees discover the “magic moment” where AI can genuinely enhance their work.
“Once someone chooses to be an AI champion in an organisation, actually just not thinking my solution is right for everyone. But helping others find the magic moment for them, helping them find ways to plug the technology in, that human partnership goes a long way,” Saretto said.
Saretto also emphasised that AI adoption is not a one-off exercise, but requires time, learning, and adapting workflows to get the most out of the technology.
“Not thinking that it’s just a one-and-done sort of thing. We don’t just give people AI training and hand them a tool, and they just know how to use it. It’s not that I follow a workflow; it’s that I have to learn how to change the way I work to get the most out of this technology,” Saretto said.
“So if you think this is just adopting a tool and you’re off to the races with great gains in six weeks, I don’t think that’s really the way it pans out.”
