As generative AI fully entrenched itself in the legal industry last year, it directed a harsh spotlight on a long-running issue: the industry has a data problem. Data volumes have grown exponentially in recent years, and information governance initiatives are now trying to catch up, focusing heavily on data management and hygiene. Wrangling data will be at the top of nearly every organization’s to-do list in the coming year.

The surge in data, combined with the proliferation of generative AI tools, has revitalized the knowledge management (KM) role, despite the many rumors that generative AI would be the death of KM. KM professionals will play a key role in helping others in legal get the most out of AI tools, though organization-wide use of those tools will likely be subject to internal policies that take into account security, privacy, ethical and other risks.