Artificial Hype: Practical Applications of AI within the Legal Department

By now we have all heard the term "AI" or artificial intelligence many times over, whether reading the latest business headlines, attending an industry conference or simply scanning your social news feeds on LinkedIn or Twitter. While this latest buzzword seems to be nothing more than a distraction to some, there are, in fact, real and practical applications of AI happening within legal departments. In fact, AI was the focus of several sessions and countless conversations during the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) Institute this past May, which illustrates its ascendance within the legal ops community. Certainly, AI is not a stand-alone answer for managing legal spend, or any other aspect of legal department operations. As I stated in an earlier blog post, the truth is that AI has delivered a clear incremental improvement over an old process.