The business challenge bigger than AI? Empowering your teams to manage it

AI has escalated faster than hiring firms can keep up, and this is a persistent challenge for legal teams as well as a recurring topic in our roundtable discussions with their leaders*. They tell us AI is leaving their people under pressure, overwhelmed and acutely aware of the need to balance the risks with the rewards. 

It's easy to see why AI is having this effect across industries. Decisionmakers face potentially the largest commercial offering of their career: systems that promise speed but take time to understand, tools that need to be properly onboarded before they can perform, and an unfamiliar lingo. There are also the reputational risks of boldly stepping out into unmarked technological territories. In the last year alone, the SRA (UK) documented more than 40 reports of potential AI misuse, in another reminder of the importance of placing human guard rails around disruptive tech*.

Although an undeniably exciting prospect, for the leaders responsible for making AI work, it can feel complicated, disorientating and daunting. If you're one of the 85% of law firms feeling a pressure to keep pace*, there are people-led tactics that you can implement to actively support your operations and your teams while strengthening your long-term AI strategy. Here, I share some of the working tactics legal leaders are implementing to help them navigate AI and all its possibilities.  

Your people are the solution 

As with most business challenges, the answer is in the skills you bring into it. Before jumping into AI, leading firms benefit from engaging talented specialists who understand where it can genuinely add value, assess risks, translate its potential into a practical strategy and, crucially, bring others with them.  

In our work with leading law firms, we help them to map their talent against their wider business plans, identify capability gaps and think creatively about how to fill them – whether that means developing existing people, reshaping a role or creating something entirely new. 

Be proactive: list and source the skills you need to navigate AI 

AI will continue to evolve, and it's essential to invest in people with the skills to help you futureproof your business. A starting point is to look at the talents you already have in your organisation and identify the gaps. What capabilities does your firm need?  Can you recruit someone or build teams with the technical understanding to integrate AI tools into your operations? Who are other firms hiring to drive their own AI initiatives forward and what types of roles are gaining momentum? 

Alongside sourcing candidates for specific roles, clients come to us for insight into the wider talent market and especially across the tech and innovation landscape, where the roles firms need today can look very different from those they will need tomorrow. This intel can be transformative in helping decisionmakers think beyond their immediate resourcing gaps. It also enables them to be strategic in mapping the capabilities their business will need in the future, to ensure their talent structure keeps pace with where they – and the market – are heading. 

Upskill from within 

A proactive approach to talent management doesn't always mean hiring someone new, though. It's worth thinking first about where upskilling existing staff would close gaps in knowledge and experience, or if you could second someone from within the business to focus solely on your AI initiatives for a fixed term.  

With U.S. law firms introducing AI training mandates, including the first London-based firm to do so, these skills are quickly becoming essential across legal teams. At one firm, AI training is now a formal part of the qualification journey, with every London trainee set to spend one of their seats working in a dedicated AI team. As AI becomes more embedded in day-to-day roles, candidates who can demonstrate practical AI skills and confidence using the technology are likely to become increasingly valuable in the legal talent market.  

Each new business challenge creates a real opportunity to develop your teams and give people the chance to access new career paths, which in turn becomes attractive to candidates and a real gold star on your Employee Value Proposition! 

Line up the right leaders 

The AI era has promoted a new dawn for the leadership persona, too. As well as an inevitable emphasis on experts in innovation and tech, firms need leaders who can embrace change and lead the way – and this might mean a different skillset at the top. Where industry experience and specialist knowledge were once the gold standard for the legal C-suite, now it's empathy, resilience, adaptability, agility, emotional intelligence, and excellent communication skills that can steer their firms through AI. 

The competition for AI and leadership talent extends far beyond the legal sector too. With all industries competing for people with these skills, lateral hiring becomes a valuable aspect of every recruitment strategy, and law firms should extend their searches beyond the legal sector, homing in on transferable skills. The cross-industry competition for AI-ready execs means thinking carefully about the offer you make, too. Appealing packages will be important if you want to attract and retain the people you need to stay ahead. 

Support your existing teams 

AI has the potential to trigger disharmony across the organisation, and leaders benefit from looking at it through an employee retention and talent management lens. Specifically, this is about how you can support your people as their ways of working evolve, sometimes beyond recognition.