Security, Trust, and Quality Key to genAI and Full Cloud Adoption

Briefing article: Security, trust and quality key to genAI and full cloud adoption

Duncan Hannigan
Vice president, sales, EMEA and APAC, Elite

Generative AI was the hottest of topics last year, and law firms of all stripes are taking notice—especially since so many clients are starting to ask about it. While it’s exciting to see such openness to the potential of genAI, the proof is still in the pudding and it’s important to understand the potential legal use cases to get the most out of it, as with any automation tool. No wonder there’s a sense in some quarters that it may take time to get right. Lessons will be learnt from early adopters, but firms will not want to fall too far behind.

One major issue to be thrashed out is how the value created via genAI should be monetised. When it takes less time to deliver work, but the standard stays the same or improves, there are commercial implications for both law firms and their clients. Increasingly, the quality of outputs is likely to become more important than the time spent producing them when it comes to perceived value.

Another key consideration is that accuracy, data protection, trust and oversight are always front of mind in the law. GenAI solutions must not only deliver the required functionality, but be designed with a responsible, ethical approach, and kept in check by human supervision, with robust safeguards in place to ensure sensitive information is only used securely, in compliance with regulations.

Increasingly, the quality of outputs is likely to become more important than the time spent producing them when it comes to perceived value

Security and data privacy issues also loom large when considering how far firms have come in moving all their core business IT systems to the cloud. While many firms have embraced the cloud for non-core purposes, the question of whether it’s a safe place for the confidential legal data in their client, document or practice management systems still seems to be giving some pause for thought.

The answer is that it most certainly is — particularly where cloud solutions are hosted by top-tier public cloud providers that invest heavily in cybersecurity, are built using modern ‘cloud-native’ architecture, deploy multi-layered security, and are continuously updated. The key is to conduct thorough due diligence on potential vendors to ensure their security provisions are watertight.

With the advent of genAI and a continued push to the cloud across the industry, the tide has truly turned when it comes to embracing what lies ahead. Now firms need to work out how to ride the crest of the wave.

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