Making GenAI work – A strategic approach for in-house legal teams

AI has long been embedded in banks, helping to drive operational efficiencies and improve customer experience. Whilst lawyers are likely to have advised on use of AI by the business, the rise of GenAI now means that in-house legal functions are navigating the novel challenge of developing firsthand experience as users and adopting and adapting GenAI for use in their own work.

But, in a highly regulated sector where reputation and continuous improvement are front of mind, how should banks’ legal functions best bring their teams along the journey? To set people up for success, we explore how leaders can cultivate behaviours around how their team understand, support and take interest in GenAI – and what this looks like as they approach three key elements of operational readiness for GenAI adoption.

Enhancing people engagement through operations

Governance

With the rise of general purpose enterprise GenAI tools, most banks have an established enterprise-level approach to GenAI governance. Often, the legal function has helped to drive or contribute to this (for example by way of an AI Centre of Excellence or working group). 

As lawyers are asked to explore legal use cases for enterprise tools (a common expectation prior to investment in specialised legal tools), in-house legal teams are now exploring how to tailor their own GenAI governance to balance safeguards with proactivity and exploration.

Teams should consider how this process can encourage people to better understand not only GenAI’s capabilities and the value it can unlock, but also how quality is assessed, and limitations and risks can be best managed. This presents a critical opportunity to help people understand and develop interest in the intentional design of GenAI roles and responsibilities, accountability and structures.

Use cases and workflows

For many legal functions, identifying use cases where GenAI can improve or transform legal processes is a current focus – in both their own service delivery, as well as how partnering with external counsel can support these efforts.

In-house legal teams in banks are generally familiar with leveraging process to deliver form- or volume-driven work more effectively, and are now being challenged to explore how GenAI might shape how this looks further up the value chain.

Many teams will have vocal supporters of GenAI, who already have interest and hands-on experience in a number of tools, with use cases already underway or in mind. They are typically the natural advocates for GenAI adoption, and are generally able to confidently articulate how GenAI drives impactful outcomes.

However, and although it may seem counterintuitive, it is also important to involve team members who are more cautious about GenAI or lack a detailed understanding and who prefer traditional processes and ways of working. Bringing these viewpoints together enables cautious team members to better understand GenAI’s potential impact on traditional workflows and leads to a more fulsome articulation of the value proposition of this technology for the legal function.

By drawing on a range of perspectives, teams can ensure that the shift to GenAI-driven processes and workflows is not just restricted to champions, but is aligned with the entire legal function’s strategies and needs (across different teams and roles).

Tools and pilots

Selecting tools and running pilots are two critical milestones for GenAI operational readiness. These activities bring together other key enablers such as governance, use cases and processes, but they also present powerful opportunities to meaningfully engage legal professionals.

Increasingly, in-house legal teams in banks are building their capability to design and deliver pilots which robustly test enterprise tools and help determine the business case for the purchase or internal development of specialised GenAI tools.

Pilots can often be designed by, and for, GenAI enthusiasts, who were also involved in assessing and selecting the potential tools. However, as noted, it is also important to consider how broader perspectives can not only add value to tool evaluation and vendor engagement – for example, by critically engaging with a demo and interrogating tool features – but also deepen understanding and foster a sense of shared ownership.

Similarly, a pilot can be intentionally designed to provide different ways for people to develop their understanding of, and interest in, GenAI: incentivisation, discussion and feedback, or a sandbox for play, enabling pilots themselves to be used as engagement mechanisms.

By facilitating practical opportunities for people to shape their journey with GenAI, teams can encourage support and build the foundations for successful adoption before, during and after a pilot.