Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege to talk about artificial intelligence at events with Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago and the Association of Corporate Counsel-Chicago.

Here’s 5 AI takeaways that I have landed with audiences at these events:

☑️ Be AI Ready: It’s “AI all the time” as we continue to see new AI related announcements on a daily basis. Stay well informed about AI, learn from others and consider designating lawyers on your team who can serve as AI legal subject matter specialists.

☑️ Take Action: Don’t wait for AI-centric laws to be enacted as AI is here to stay and the pace of AI innovation will continue to accelerate. Be proactive in delivering necessary AI legal advice to your clients – and especially when it comes to shaping your organization’s AI policies/practices and conducting appropriate due diligence on AI providers.

☑️ AI is a “Team Sport”: The AI legal landscape is broad and involves a range of surface areas from ethics to IP to data privacy to cybersecurity to employment law to contract negotiations to regulatory law. Take a multi-disciplinary approach to AI legal matters.

☑️ Be Smart with AI Usage: Understand how your organization is using AI tools – and especially as your legal organization embraces AI to better serve your clients. While IMO lawyers don’t need to be AI technology “experts,” most US. legal ethics rules require lawyers to understand the risks and benefits of using technology and some states (e.g., California, Florida) are already issuing AI legal ethics opinions for lawyers.

☑️ Learn from the Past: We have all embraced other leading technology advancements that have impacted how we work like the rise of the PC, the internet, smartphones, social media and cloud computing. Take the legal lessons learned from navigating with those developments in the past and apply them to your AI journey.