The Microsoft ANZ legal head also shares what he thinks is the profession's greatest challenge
Earlier this week, Microsoft ANZ legal head Clayton Noble told NZ Lawyer that the legal profession needs to focus on embracing AI. In the last part of this interview, he shares why the legal profession’s greatest challenge is also its greatest opportunity, and why he would relive the day he met his partner if he could.
The greatest challenge we’re dealing with at the moment is also our greatest opportunity – to effectively work alongside clients and their IT teams to incorporate generative AI into their day to day lives. As I mentioned earlier, many legal teams struggle with balancing innovation and caution, in a profession that’s traditionally risk averse.
That means helping them understand how they can balance compliance with top privacy and security standards and manage risk. The profession rightly takes a cautious approach when deploying new technology, but once we demonstrate how they can safeguard confidential data and remove those common pain points using AI, I find the challenge is less about persuading people and more about helping guide them through adoption.
That said, with generative AI still relatively new, resourcing can also be a challenge, ensuring IT teams as well as legal practitioners are engaged and comfortable in customising and using generative AI tools. There are some great resources out there for legal teams looking to use AI to get ahead. The New Zealand Law Society's Guidance on using AI provides a helpful framework, showing how lawyers can take advantage of those important productivity gains now, while effectively managing the risks.
With generative AI, the whole legal profession is ripe with opportunities to transform the traditional ways of doing things, see a real boost in efficiency and most exciting of all, create a more satisfying work experience for lawyers. I’m looking forward to seeing that become a reality for many more firms and lawyers, and seeing their experimentation result in new use cases and benefits we couldn’t have foreseen a year ago.
The key thing to remember is that AI doesn't replace the human expertise of lawyers, but it does enable them to spend more time where it matters most. By reducing the admin that can suck so much time out of your day — summarising documents, finding key information, and creating first drafts —AI can help lawyers dedicate their energy to the vital stuff that’s why they’re in the profession in the first place – legal analysis, client strategy, and creative problem-solving. AI isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about helping people thrive in a modern, fast-paced work setting.
And the tools are only getting better. I can’t wait to see more firms make generative AI tools available to their teams, so all of us can reap the benefits of reduced workload, increased accuracy, and better job satisfaction.
The day I met my partner. It was a long time ago on a fun night out. I have vivid recollections of him from that night over 30 years ago, but I’m not sure now after all this time if they are accurate. I guess like lots of people when they first meet their life partner, we didn’t know then that we’d fall in love and build our lives together. I’d love to see again how we reacted to each other and what we said to each other.
