In this insightful interview, Bradley Collins, CEO of Legal Tech Talk, engages in a conversation with Bill Deckelman, General Counsel at DXC Technology, delving into the transformative potential of gen AI in the industry. Bill shares his perspective on the profound impact gen AI is expected to have on law firms, emphasising its role in driving efficiencies, cost savings, and collaborative innovations.
As the anticipation for gen AI’s influence grows, Bill also provides valuable advice to peers contemplating AI implementation within large global corporations, highlighting the importance of thorough preparation and addressing key considerations such as security and governance.
Bradley Collins: Hi Bill, it’s great to speak with you! To kick things off, I’d love to get your take on how big of an impact gen AI is actually going to have on the legal sector?
Bill Deckelman: The impact Digital Transformation has had on the legal sector has been modest, at best. The impact gen AI will have on the legal sector will be massive. And legal professionals, like many other professionals, will begin experiencing its impact in a significant way as early as 2024. How do we know this? For those of us who are not data scientists or otherwise steeped in the inner workings of artificial intelligence, we already have seen for ourselves the amazing things ChatGPT and similar gen AI models can do. Similarly, we are getting hands-on with products and use cases that are signaling significant benefits for business professionals in terms of automation and augmentation of our workflows. For those of us who are learning about gen AI and reading the research and reactions of the experts, there is daily validation that gen AI is the biggest step change in technology we have seen in our lifetimes and it is progressing faster than any new technology has done before. Bill Gates is on record calling it bigger and more impactful than the Internet. It impacts the legal profession at its heart – it is based on language and words and it learns rapidly and constantly on an unfathomable volume of data, then writes and speaks to us in a human-like manner.
Bradley Collins: Interesting stuff – I’d also love to know what kind of effect you expect this to have on the relationship between law firms and their clients?
Bill Deckelman: I think it will offer huge opportunities and advantages for forward-thinking/acting law firms. Law firms, just like the enterprise and any other organization, will reap big benefits in efficiencies and cost savings and will have an opportunity to pass along some of those benefits to clients who will welcome relief from historic, always-increasing billable rates. Perhaps even more impactful, law firms and their clients are going to be able to collaborate using gen AI to develop new, more effective, ways to identify and mitigate risks and bring more certainty to potential outcomes of disputes and litigation.
Bradley Collins: Finally – what advice can you offer to your peers when it comes to the implementation of AI within large global corporations?
Bill Deckelman: Be prepared to have done your homework on a well-thought-out use case and on the AI technology and model behavior, as well as cost to procure, maintain, and operate. Security, transparency, and governance will present strong barriers, often at least to some degree, legitimately so. You will also need access to the data scientists and other AI team members, such as prompt engineers, in order to operate effectively. Bottom line, expect a lot of homework and a lot of security and budget discussions. Also, why I am excited to speak at this conference: There could not be a more exciting time in the profession thanks to gen AI. This will be a very challenging and disruptive time so this conference will be a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and learn from literally thousands of fellow legal professionals!
Bill Deckelman will be speaking in London at LegalTechTalk on 12-14th June 2024.
Read full LegalTech Diaries Volume 3: https://www.legaltech-talk.com/legaltechdiaries/volume-3/
