P2P

98 BUILD VS. BUY VS. PARTNER DECISIONS (HOW TO PICK YOUR NEW ROBOT COLLEAGUES) Organizations must evaluate whether to procure vendor solutions, develop custom tools, or partner with legal technology providers based on scale, risk, and expertise. Evaluating AI tools for practical and ethical legal use is no easy task. That complexity increases significantly when organizations decide to build custom AI platforms or partner with tech companies on hybrid solutions. Regardless of approach, AI initiatives should be designed to scale across practice areas while remaining maintainable over time. And success metrics should focus on time saved, risk management, quality improvement, and client value -- not just cost. Key AI tool evaluation criteria include: • Transparency: How are AI decisions made? Does the tool cite its process and sources? • Accuracy/Reliability: Does the tool provide workable output given proper input? • Performance: Are there limitations on volume or speed? • Data Security: Where and for what purposes is data stored, retained, and used? Does it train the AI model? Does the vendor's terms of use, privacy policy, or other documents contain provisions on data sharing, security architecture, third-party services agreements, cross-border restrictions, etc.? • Vendor Relationship: Is there access to the product roadmap or preferred rates? • Integration: Does the tool integrate securely with the existing tech stack? • Budget: Does the value justify the cost? • Needs: Does the tool solve any real problems? • Feedback: Has peer review or a well-organized pilot program been conducted? BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN EXPECTATIONS External and internal stakeholders increasingly expect thoughtful, transparent, and responsible AI usage in legal service delivery. Recognizing that many innovations fail because organizations struggle to collaborate across internal and external boundaries, a recent Harvard Business Review article, "Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale," opined that successful innovation requires a certain type of leader: a bridger. Bridgers accelerate innovation by curating the right partners, translating across different ways of working, and integrating efforts to maintain momentum. Legal organizations, often rooted in tradition and the "old guard" way of doing things, may particularly benefit from such leadership. Successful AI adoption requires bridgers, champions, and strong leadership buy-in. And that is especially true as the maturity of AI technology causes expectations to shift over time. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, GenAI went from

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