Ep #20 Generative AI and the Coming Disruption with Mary O’Carroll and Craig Katerberg

With the fast pace that Generative AI models like Chat GPT have been expanding and improving, it has become quite clear that major disruptions are on the way for every single industry. And the legal industry is likely to be the first to face major disruptions due to these technological advances. Today, Mary O’Carroll,Chief Community Officer at Ironclad, lnc., and Craig Katerber, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, discuss generative AI and the impacts they expect it to have on the legal services industry. They also spend time talking about LegalOps, scaling teams, modernizing legal departments, and the benefits of LinkedIn.

The landscape of Generative AI already looks very different from how it looked six months ago, and even six weeks ago. It is a rapidly growing technology and is making its way into every industry. This is a very exciting opportunity, especially for creative people who are just beginning to play with the tools and seeing what could be possible. The legal industry is a relatively slow moving one with very outdated processes and an unchanging law school curriculum. Generative AI could bring much needed updates to these areas and propel legal professionals toward a better, more streamlined and efficient way of doing business. Although some people may be fearful of this new technology or worry that it will replace them, there are immeasurable benefits to keeping an open mind and embracing this new way of approaching business.

With Generative AI, the old way of doing things is no longer going to be acceptable. The legal services industry in particular is slow to change and many people are still working out of offices with old fashioned filing cabinets and outdated processes. This advanced technology is a great opportunity for people to re-evaluate their current systems and make much needed improvements. 

Quotes

• “One of the biggest catalysts for hiring a legal operations person now is digital transformation.” (18:23-18:28 | Mary)

• “This is a much bigger moment than a lot of people realize. Generative AI and large language models are going to have a huge effect on every part of our economy in every part of our world.” (26:16-26:26 | Mary)

• “It's so much about empathy or trying to put yourself in the person's shoes about what they actually want or care about, and there's a huge amount of value there. And we'll see as AI goes, but that's a very human skill.” (33:15-33:29 | Craig)

• “AI and efficiency has always been at odds with the billable hour, but you can't avoid this now, you can't do business as usual.” (35:34-35:42 | Mary)

• “If there was ever a distinction of black and white between legal advice and non legal advice, it's going to be a lot more gray in the future.” (36:47-36:54 | Craig) 

 

Links

Connect with Mary O’Carroll:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryshenocarroll/

 

Connect with Craig Katerberg:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-katerberg-70a6373/

 

Connect with Chris Batz:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbatz/ 

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