Reskilling Is Required to Realize Generative AI’s True Potential

Despite widespread excitement and substantial investments in generative artificial intelligence over the past year, many legal departments haven’t enjoyed the returns they expected. This discrepancy has led some leaders to question whether generative AI is the game-changer it was touted to be.

Generative AI is transformative, but some early adopters are making a critical error: They lack a comprehensive reskilling strategy. To unlock AI’s full potential, legal departments can’t skip this important step.

Reskilling’s Importance

Many legal departments rushed to create or acquire expensive generative AI tools without first preparing their workforce, leading to underused technologies and unmet expectations. Employees who are unfamiliar with generative AI and its capabilities may resist these tools, resulting in poor integration and minimal impact on productivity.

Despite the allure of AI and the expectation of immediate improvements in efficiency, the rush to integrate these tools often overlooks the human factor. Without a thorough understanding and buy-in from the workforce, even the most advanced AI systems fall short of their potential.

Reskilling is now recognized as a strategic imperative for organizations aiming to harness generative AI effectively. Reskilling initiatives are becoming mainstream, with 56% of surveyed organizations actively implementing these programs, according to Harvard Business Review. The article also stated that “reskilling has emerged as an essential strategy for companies aiming to secure a competitive advantage by cultivating unique talent and addressing critical skill shortages.” Despite this call to action, the challenge remains for how to effectively engage employees and align reskilling efforts with business goals.

For reskilling to be truly effective, it must be aligned with the broader strategic objectives of the organization. This alignment ensures that the skills being developed among employees are directly applicable to the tasks and challenges they will face.

In the context of the legal industry, this means identifying the specific ways in which generative AI can enhance legal practices and tailoring reskilling programs to support these applications. Reskilling programs should focus on training employees to use these tools proficiently, understanding both their technical functionalities and practical applications in daily legal work.

Practical Steps

Start small with simple tools. Begin with easy-to-use, inexpensive generative AI tools that allow employees to explore and experiment. Custom GPTs are an excellent starting point for this exploration.

Encourage experimentation. Provide employees with the freedom to create “throwaway GPTs” for specific projects. These temporary tools can help employees identify useful applications of AI in their daily tasks without the pressure of permanent implementation.

Pilot with an early adoption group. Start with a small early adoption group to pilot the program. Identify the most eager members of the group and have them be the first to go through the reskilling process. Their enthusiasm and productivity gains can motivate others to integrate AI seamlessly into their everyday work and processes.

Expand AI tools across the organization. Once the legal team is reskilled and using their custom GPTs effectively, they can identify which tools might benefit the rest of the organization.

Consider making these tools available through instant messaging platforms for broader use. Examples include FAQ policy generative AI assistants to reduce repetitive inquiries, simple non-disclosure agreement creators, and a training enablement guide GPT for better understanding of contracting processes.

Simple Use Cases. Introducing employees to generative AI through simple starter use cases can significantly enhance their comfort and proficiency with the technology. This allows them to augment their skills and see immediate benefits without feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes, there are obvious use cases that are missed.

For instance, during a client meeting, a legal professional declined a personal writing assistant, claiming she couldn’t think of how she would use it. However, just before we ended the call, she mentioned that she had more than 10 performance evaluations to complete and was dreading it. We pointed out that a personal writing assistant could make this task less painful and set it up.

Here are some other proven, practical use cases for generative AI integration tailored for legal professionals:

Brainstorming on meeting planning. Generate ideas and agendas for meetings, ensuring all relevant points are covered.

Summarizing benchmarking reports. Highlight key insights and metrics.

Extracting key terms from contracts. Identify and extract important terms and clauses from contracts, making it easier to review and manage legal documents.

Automating FAQs on policies and procedures. Create and manage FAQ sections for company policies and procedures, reducing repetitive inquiries and freeing up time for staff.

Drafting objectives and key results. Help draft clear and achievable OKRs by analyzing company goals and performance data.

Starting with simple projects enable employees to gradually build their skills and confidence, paving the way for more sophisticated integrations in the future, such as more complex contract creation, invoice review, and using assistants to refine legal arguments during litigation preparation.

Generative AI’s potential to revolutionize industries is undeniable, but realizing it requires a strategic approach. By prioritizing reskilling, legal departments can overcome current challenges and achieve significant gains. The journey to effective AI integration begins with small, manageable steps and a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation. In the business community overall this message seems to be taking hold, and legal organizations should take the lead due to the substantial impact of this technology in their field.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Stephanie Corey is CEO and co-founder of UpLevel Ops, a legal operations consulting firm, and co-founder of LINK, the Legal Innovators Network.

Brandi Pack is a legal tech analyst and AI specialist at UpLevel Ops.

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