How general counsels are stepping up as unlikely AI champions
General counsels (GCs) are quietly emerging as the unsung heroes in the AI revolution, not just within their own boardrooms, but across global organizations.
While AI’s potential is well-recognized in various sectors, the pivotal role GCs and in-house legal teams play in its successful adoption is often overlooked. Until recently, the AI spotlight has shone on tech-focused roles like chief information security officers (CISOs) or chief technology officers (CTOs).
Yet, it is GCs who are now increasingly navigating and advising on complex AI-related risks, legal landscapes and regulatory frameworks, making them indispensable drivers of technological progress. What’s more — and perhaps unsuspectingly so — they are also becoming growing advocates of AI adoption.
Let’s dive further into this notion of the GC as an unlikely AI evangelist.
The promise of AI in the legal profession
As a GC, or as part of the broader legal team, you are uniquely positioned to harness AI’s power — not only to streamline legal operations but also to elevate strategic decision-making at the highest levels. Embracing AI allows you to mitigate risks, enhance compliance, and drive innovation, setting new benchmarks for strategic foresight and corporate governance.
Traditionally cautious digital adopters, legal professionals like GCs and paralegals within forward-thinking businesses are now at the forefront of technological transformation. As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently highlighted, AI offers unprecedented opportunities to elevate the legal profession. Comparing AI’s impact to that of online research tools like Google, AI expert Cecilia Ziniti also underscored its potential to revolutionize legal work in a recent interview with The Corporate Director Podcast.
For GCs, this means balancing AI’s vast benefits against inherent risks, using AI to expedite legal research, contract review, and due diligence — essentially transforming the legal landscape.
Risk and compliance get a tech upgrade: AI’s role in streamlining processes
Compliance – a cornerstone of the legal professional’s wheelhouse – has long been a labor-intensive aspect of business, but AI is set to change that. Imagine AI tools that can sift through vast legal documents in seconds, or draft contracts with precision, reducing human error. By automating these tasks, AI not only saves time but also enhances the quality and consistency of legal work, providing a stronger legal foundation for businesses and preemptively identifying potential compliance issues before they escalate.
AI isn’t just about efficiency; it’s also about foresight. In risk management, AI tools can analyze historical data, identify patterns, and predict potential risks with astonishing accuracy. Whether it’s assessing contractual obligations or monitoring market trends, AI provides real-time insights that enable GCs to make informed decisions, protecting organizations from unforeseen challenges and ensuring long-term stability.
Meanwhile, AI’s impact on everyday legal tasks is just as profound. By automating routine procedures like document review and legal research, AI frees up legal professionals to focus on more complex, strategic work.
Elevating strategic decision-making with AI
AI is also transforming how decisions are made at the highest levels – something that resonates with GCs looking to more firmly assert themselves as strategic partners within the boardroom.
With AI at their disposal, GCs can now access real-time data and analytics, evaluate potential strategies, and choose the best course of action with confidence. AI also fosters collaboration across departments, creating a unified platform for data sharing and analysis. This integrated approach enhances decision-making and ensures that legal strategies are closely aligned with business objectives.
Moreover, AI can now even prepare high-quality board materials and real-time dashboards, elevating the level of discourse and decision-making in boardrooms. This technology ensures that legal teams can serve their colleagues with unparalleled diligence and accuracy, enhancing overall efficiency and creativity in legal practices.
Leveraging AI-powered board management platforms
To elaborate on this tantalising prospect for GCs, thanks to advances in AI technology much of the above is now possible in way that is completely safe, secure and easy to use (avoiding the many inherent perils when using mass market, open-source AI tools).
AI-powered Diligent Boards helps improve governance and strategic decision-making through various intuitive new features. For example, GCs and their fellow board members can now confidently and responsibly deploy AI to:
- Review and analyze previous board materials, extract relevant metrics, and generate narratives
- Identify forward-looking statements and action items that need follow-up, ensuring that key strategic questions are addressed
- Draft meeting minutes, track action items, and providing personalized briefings on changes in board materials
- Enable more efficient preparation for meetings, including offering enhanced and instant insights from large datasets, ultimately driving more informed and effective governance
- Create efficient, context-aware summaries of board materials, providing AI-powered insights into a company’s ESG focus and self-disclosed risk factors
- Quickly assist with boards-related questions through a 24/7 AI-powered virtual assistant
The road ahead: Balancing AI innovation with responsibility and oversight
Put simply, the integration of AI into legal work offers GCs a transformative tool to enhance compliance, risk management and strategic decision-making. By embracing AI, GCs can drive efficiency, accuracy, and innovation across their legal departments, and critically, within the boardroom itself.
However, it is crucial to balance the opportunities with ethical considerations to ensure responsible AI adoption – something that GCs can be guaranteed when working with the purpose-built Diligent AI tools, and by enrolling on our industry-first, market-leading AI Ethics & Board Oversight program.
One thing is for sure: In the age of AI, GCs and legal professionals who stay ahead of the curve will no longer be regarded as just legal advisors — they are strategic leaders, poised to shape the future of their organizations.
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