Peer to Peer: ILTA's Quarterly Magazine
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1544492
P E E R T O P E E R M A G A Z I N E ยท S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 69 high-performance engine and put- ting it in a car with no chassis. For CIOs, this means reframing the conversation with firm leader- ship. The AI budget is not just the licensing cost and the deployment cost. It includes the cost of making your content AI-ready -- and the ongoing cost of keeping it that way. If that cost is not in the plan, the plan is incomplete, and the AI investment will underperform. It also means reframing the internal narrative. Information governance has historically been a tough sell in law firms because its benefits are abstract and long-term. AI has changed that calculation. The benefits of gov- erned content are now concrete and immediate: better AI output, lower AI cost, reduced AI risk, and the ability to answer regulatory questions with confidence. AI has given information governance its business case. The CIOs who recognize that -- who position IG not as a compliance burden, but as the infrastructure that makes their AI investment actually work -- are the ones who will be having a very different conversation with their managing partners 12 months from now. The 18-month reckoning is not a failure of AI. It is the natural con- sequence of deploying a powerful technology on an ungoverned foundation. The firms that recog- nize this and act on it now will emerge with AI capabilities that are durable, defensible, and in- creasingly valuable. The firms that continue to treat the symptoms at the AI layer will continue to hit the same wall -- only harder, and at greater cost. The foundation was always the point. AI just made it impossible to ignore. KANDACE DONOVAN Kandace Donovan is the Vice President of Operations for North America at LegalRM. With extensive experience in legal technology and client operations, Kandace focuses on aligning solutions with practical business needs. She is responsible for leading sales and operational strategy, guiding implementation teams, and supporting long-term client success across the North American market. Her work helps organizations improve visibility into their information assets, manage risk, and maintain compliance in increasingly complex regulatory environments.