Lawyers, Don’t Fight AI. Supervise It To Enhance Your Value.
Before you can supervise AI, you must understand how those in your company use it.
“So, in light of the latest advancements, are you using AI even more now to digest discovery documents quickly?” I asked Ted, an eDiscovery manager for a top U.S. law firm.
“Yes, but that’s not all,” he said. “Our lawyers also use AI to refine legal arguments, evaluate who to put on the stand, determine the precise question sequence to discredit a witness’s testimony … .”
“Hold on … you’re using AI for trial strategy?” I asked. “But, isn’t that a human lawyer’s core competency?”
“Yes,” Ted smiled. “But don’t worry. AI won’t replace every lawyer — only those who refuse to use AI to enhance their work.”
Ted is right. Let’s not fight AI. It’s a losing proposition. Supervising its use is more important — and more rewarding. Below are key considerations for the comprehensive supervision of AI in your organization. If it feels like a massive undertaking, it’s because it is. Thank goodness it’s not something you do alone.
First, Understand How Others Apply AI In Your Organization
Before you can supervise AI, you must understand how those in your company use it. Map out each AI use case. Then conduct risk assessments that identify potential associated legal, reputational, and operational risks. Look at each use case to:
- Identify potential legal risks from intellectual property rights, consumer protection laws, anti-discrimination laws, and specific industry or domain regulations.
- Establish company-wide ethical guidelines that address issues such as fairness, transparency, privacy, and avoiding biases in AI decision-making processes. Examples include testing to avoid discriminatory outcomes and requiring informed consent when using personal data.
- Develop strategies to mitigate risks and manage guidelines effectively, then incorporate them into your AI supervision processes.
Yes, it’s a tall order, but supervision increases transparency and accountability. Figuring out how to supervise the use of AI in your organization now is a critical step in eventually complying with any future standards and regulations.
Bring Others In On The AI Supervision Process
It’s remarkable how AI requires us to communicate more, not just with the individuals around us but also with AI tools themselves.
Conversations with company leaders from marketing, finance, HR, operations management, and other departments will give you a more holistic understanding of their AI use. They’ll help you make more informed decisions and develop more thorough processes for effective oversight.
If you haven’t been out of your office in a while, supervising AI will have you up and out of your chair, walking around the office, and talking with your colleagues in new and exciting ways. That’s a good thing!
Monitor AI System Performance On An Ongoing Basis
Once the stakes involved are known, you and others can develop the processes to monitor AI’s performance, which can include steps to:
- Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as standard metrics for accuracy, speed, or efficiency. Work with your IT team to find the most effective monitoring tools and techniques, such as setting up dashboards or visual reporting to make it easier to track KPIs and alerts.
- Set up alerts to notify the appropriate stakeholders when specific events or malfunctions occur. An AI tool can trigger a warning when it encounters an error or it takes longer than expected to complete a task.
- Fight fire with fire. (Hold up, we’re not fighting AI!) I meant to say supervise AI using machine learning techniques. For example, deploy anomaly detection algorithms that identify unusual behavior patterns in your systems.
- Conduct audits to spot gaps or issues not caught through traditional methods. Consider requiring the regular review of system activity logs, user feedback analyses, or manual systems tests.
Enact Strong Data Governance Practices
If you supervise only the performance of AI algorithms, you’re refereeing only half the game. Governing the data that AI algorithms use is just as important. Put data governance systems in place that:
- supervise the collection, storage, and use of data by AI systems;
- monitor compliance with the growing numbers of data protection and privacy laws;
- address issues related to data ownership, access, and retention; and
- establish and follow protocols for data security.
Why fight AI when you can enhance your corporate role by supervising its use instead? Turn over tasks like manual contract and legal document drafting and review to proven AI tools. Spend your time and attention more efficiently ensuring regulatory compliance and effective risk management in today’s AI-driven landscape.
Olga V. Mack is the VP at LexisNexis and CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat, Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security, and Blockchain Value: Transforming Business Models, Society, and Communities. She is working on Visual IQ for Lawyers, her next book (ABA 2023). You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.
