Why Orgs Need a Solid Reskilling Strategy for AI Adoption

Many legal departments lack a coherent reskilling strategy for AI adoption- it’s a costly misstep for organizations, as Stephanie Corey and Brandi Pack of UpLevel Ops discuss in a Bloomberg Law article.

By failing to adequately train their workforce before integrating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools into their organizations, these legal departments are falling short on their AI goals and jeopardizing successful adoption of the technology.

Th authors cite a Harvard Business Review survey that says that 56% of organizations have implemented reskilling programs. That’s an encouraging statistic. However, it’s still a challenge to engage employees and integrate that training into business goals.

Employees need training that focuses on both the technical and practical applications of AI in their day-to-day workflow.

Corey and Pack offer up these suggestions for reskilling and integrating AI within your legal department:

• Start small: Introduce employees to simple, easy-to-use GenAI tools like custom generative pre-training transformers to experiment and learn.
• Encourage experimentation: Allow employees to create “throwaway GPTs” for specific tasks to see how AI can fit into their workflow without long-term commitments.
• Pilot programs: Start with a small group of early adopters to test AI tools and reskilling initiatives, using their success to motivate the broader workforce.
• Gradual expansion: Once the initial group is comfortable, expand AI tools across the organization, making them accessible on platforms such as instant messaging for broader use.
• Simple use cases: Begin with clear, practical use cases like brainstorming for meetings, summarizing reports, extracting contract terms, automating FAQs, and drafting objectives.

Legal departments are well-positioned to lead the way in AI adoption due to the profound impact this technology can have on their work. By developing a sound reskilling strategy for AI, your employees will grow more comfortable with the technology, leading to significant gains in efficiency and productivity.