This Week’s Theme
Legal AI demos are easy. Adoption isn’t.
Some legal teams have a PDF “AI policy” and most a graveyard of pilots.
That’s what happens when leadership writes rules but no one installs the loop that runs AI week after week.
This edition is the fix:
Evaluate >> Approve >> Deploy >> Measure >> Refine
If it isn’t happening on a recurring cadence, your AI is theatre.
Legal AI Operating Rythm
1. Evaluate on your own matters
Pick one workflow. Script 6-10 steps. Build a small evaluation set from past files. Score accuracy, auditability, speed, repeat use.
2. Approve by rule
One table. Thresholds. Red / amber / green. Who signs off. What happens on failure.
3. Deploy into tasks
Extraction. Classification. Checklists. Citations. No “act like a lawyer” prompts.
4. Measure weekly
Usage. Edit rate. Time saved. Exception count. Matter coverage.
5. Refine (tight feedback loop)
Review miss cases. Update prompts or rules. Push wins from pilot → practice.
This rhythm turns policy compliance into observable behavior. It also tells you, fast, whether to scale or kill a tool, before it becomes “shelfware”.
Legal AI in Action
🎬 The 90-Day AI Operating Rhythm
The process that turns AI from initiative into routine.
🎬 Case study: 2-week consulting audit
How structure and governance were designed before choosing tools.
Red Flag of the Week
Across calls with a litigator managing eDiscovery, a legal tech investor, and a 20-year enterprise legal ops lead:
AI is still being “approved” via policy but not run through process.
Pilots launch without owners, exceptions stay in inboxes, and usage flatlines after week one.
AI isn’t failing on capability, it’s failing on cadence.
What Legal AI Frontlines are Saying
1. Rhythm beats policy
A written rule changes nothing without a weekly loop to enforce it.
2. Tables beat committees
Approval needs thresholds and ownership, not debate.
3. Usage is the only proof
If it isn’t tracked on live matters weekly, it’s already dead.
Looking Ahead
🎙 This Saturday at 2pm CET!
This week’s guest on Rok’s Legal AI Conversations is Srinidhi Ranganathan, Founder of AgreePro. Her lesson from building AI for contracting: tools don’t move deals forward, process and rhythm do.
Each edition of Legal AI Brief brings practical lessons from firms using AI safely.