{"id":1125,"date":"2023-04-12T01:19:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T01:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com\/sea\/legal\/posts\/generative-ai-tools-for-budget-starved-corporate-law-departments-risks-and-opportunities"},"modified":"2024-03-06T10:14:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T10:14:27","slug":"generative-ai-tools-for-budget-starved-corporate-law-departments-risks-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com\/sea\/legal\/posts\/generative-ai-tools-for-budget-starved-corporate-law-departments-risks-and-opportunities","title":{"rendered":"Generative AI Tools for Budget-Starved Legal Departments: Risks and Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Whilst the expression doing more with less has been overdone, nothing expresses the predicament of corporate legal departments better in the current macroeconomic climate. The Thomson Reuters State of Corporate Law Departments Report 2023<\/a> showed that the typical legal team considers cost control as their third-highest priority.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Legal Counsel sees technology as a critical tool for solving their two-fold problem of shrinking budget and burgeoning workload. With so many technologies available, it’s difficult to choose which one is best for your team. As ChatGPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) has emerged, such decisions have been further complicated because it is an easy and inexpensive way to automate low-stakes use cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The way to quickly gain clarity is to recognise all the new technology as simply another competent tool to assist in performing low-value, repetitive tasks. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are still being fine-tuned as they are yet to possess the latest information, can give false information, and make things up that ‘sound’ plausible. These are all three anathema to the legal industry<\/a> because as a trusted counsel, you are expected to provide accurate, up-to-date, and factual advice to your clients!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, if you don\u2019t use AI to your advantage, are you leaving insight on the table? In this article, we will discuss both risks and opportunities offered by AI because they go together when we talk of the latest cutting-edge tech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Generative AI vs Integrative AI: What is the difference?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Generative AI is a subset of deep learning trained on massive amounts of digital content that can generate new content (text, image, speech), etc. based on a user’s prompt input.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Using ChatGPT as a standalone tool can be risky but using it as part of an integrated AI solution can minimise that risk. Having a generative AI system (such as ChatGPT) integrated into your workflow and existing systems through a functionality such as an open API, may be useful, and can function as an extra layer of security. Where set up thoughtfully, doing so will help you ensure that all the checks and balances are being met. You can check that the data you are opting to use is factual in the context of all other information at your fingertips, for example.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Joel Hron, Vice President of Technology at Thomson Reuters, is an advocate for building generative AI that can be trusted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Thomson Reuters has for many years implemented\u202fAI\u202fthroughout its portfolio of products in a variety of ways. Generative\u202fAI\u202fis a new and burgeoning field and Thomson Reuters\u202fis (and has for some time) been actively researching this technology. We have several active developments underway internally and are continuing to iterate and improve these models in ways that deliver accurate, trustworthy, and ethical results to our end users.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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What does AI offer Senior Legal Counsel?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Senior legal counsel typically has a plethora of responsibilities ranging from dispensing legal counsel to business units and managing risks to handling inter-departmental collaboration and training new lawyers joining the team. In the current uncertain macroeconomic scenario, there is increased pressure to cut costs while being more effective and accurate in managing legal risks arising out of the same economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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AI-enabled tech tools can help senior legal counsel by:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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