P2P

Spring23

Peer to Peer: ILTA's Quarterly Magazine

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27 I L T A N E T . O R G discussion should then be around whether this solution would work, given the need for enforceability and clarity in legal drafting. Or is the "legal drafting" needed at all? Will a term sheet just work? What about standardizing the document, removing most of steps 2-6 in their entirety? These latter solutions are not AI powered, but they might solve the problem the most effectively. It is always helpful to apply some success metrics about whether a particular AI solution is the best fit for a problem. For example, when considering such a solution you might wish to make a hypothesis, e.g., "we believe that by using generative AI to produce contracts from term sheets, the contracting process will be sped up by 50%, allowing us to reduce write-offs on our matters by $10,000". In other words, don't skimp on evaluating both the problem and the solution in-depth. It is very interesting to follow what legal technology vendors are doing in the AI space. The most successful ones will focus on specific value propositions and build tools that support specific existing or optimized workflows. Ultimately, the goal here is to fall in love with solving the problem, not using the technology. Lawyers may not all be visionaries, but they can help you be one Sometimes, people just want to deploy a tool and see what happens, rather than speak to people who do a given workflow to understand what their issues and pain points are. Often, this is driven by a desire to not just "update" old and bad processes, but to throw away the rule book and do something completely new. People who adopt this view often see themselves as being able to see a vision that lawyers (or other people affected by a workflow) themselves cannot see. They often say that delegating all responsibility for innovation to the lawyers themselves won't get us anywhere – they will be clear about the problems they face, but they won't think outside the box. But you need these people to help you be a visionary. The reason you need to speak to lawyers and users is to understand the problem in a sufficient level of detail. You cannot be a visionary without understanding the details of the world you are operating in. Lawyers will probably not articulate the problem properly, but as a technologist, that's your job. You should hear what they are saying and piece together the facts to work out what the most serious problems are, and how they could potentially be solved. Approaching problems differently? It is easy to think that new technologies might change problems people have. But the effect technology has is on the solution, and perhaps your own ability to revisit problems that you might have previously thought unsolvable. "Ultimately, the goal here is to fall in love with solving the problem, not using the technology."

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