Exploring the use of technology to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and add value to a legal team’s contribution has long been a top agenda item for GCs. And now that generative AI (GenAI) has become the big focus area for businesses, these cutting-edge technologies are being implemented in legal departments.

AI is already being deployed in some legal departments for legal workflow automation (e.g., triaging and routing legal service requests), contracts and document review. Now GenAI is being layered on, or considered for standalone applications, to answer questions about policies, assist in search and research, and for summarization and first drafts—holding the promise of reducing lawyers’ admin burden and improving efficiency generally. GCs operating in today’s competitive and challenged business environment must keep on top of these developments and be able to report to their boards on whether and how GenAI and other cutting-edge technologies can help the legal department improve its contribution to the business.