Legal AI: Balancing Innovation With Practicalities of Legal Work

As artificial intelligence transforms the legal industry, knowing how legal AI can balance innovation with the practicalities of legal work has become a strategic imperative. Jennifer McIver and Ken Crutchfield explored this intersection in a recent episode of the Wolters Kluwer Legal Leaders Exchange podcast.

The conversation emphasized that AI innovation must align with the day-to-day realities of legal professionals. McIver stressed that successful legal AI is based on solutions that reduce risk and fit seamlessly into established workflows, while Crutchfield underscored the need for relevance, ease of use, and trust in the tools legal teams adopt. They both agreed that AI success is predicated on co-creation with legal professionals and use cases.

McIver and Crutchfield also challenged common fears about job displacement. While AI may shift traditional roles, it also creates new ones. Examples are prompt engineers and legal technologists, who blend legal and technical expertise.

Crutchfield has flagged agentic AI as a major trend, urging legal professionals to focus on its tangible benefits. While the promise of agentic systems lies in their potential to act autonomously, the real test is whether they have a practical application in legal contexts. The key is to press vendors and partners for specifics on how agentic capabilities will function in real-world legal environments. 

Although change is happening rapidly, McIver and Crutchfield remain confident that AI’s transformation of the legal field will progress in steady, manageable steps. “It will move fast in the day-to-day, but it will still be something we can keep up with,” explained Crutchfield. For legal leaders, the focus must be on staying involved, asking insightful questions, and forming partnerships that balance innovation with the practicalities of legal work.