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When Sam first encountered artificial intelligence in a meaningful way, he was already aware that it was coming. “We knew AI was going to become important,” he says. “Yet, although AI-type companies had been around for some time, I don’t think we realized how fast it was going to happen.”
Although many regard AI as a new technology, it’s actually been around for decades. However, the technology had been advancing at what Sam describes as a “sedated pace” until, almost overnight, everything changed. The public release of ChatGPT in 2022 was the turning point. It’s a moment Sam remembers clearly: “It was mind-blowing how good it was. It felt like there’d been a massive acceleration. I remember us meeting to talk about what role would AI play in our business, and how quickly would we need to move.”
What LawVu did was dive in headfirst; their first serious steps into AI adoption weren’t through cautious pilots or consulting reports but a hackathon. Engineers, product managers, support staff and customer experience teams were invited to set aside their day jobs for several days and experiment together. The idea was simple: explore what AI could do. “The key thing is to get your hands dirty, to play with it, and through trial and error see what weird and wonderful things you can create,” Sam explains.
What struck him most wasn’t just the prototypes that emerged from those sessions, but the energy. “The joy of being a company of our size back then was that you got different teams with different kinds of experiences coming together. It became a melting pot of ideas. Presenting back, you’d see what someone else had done and go, ‘Oh, that’s so cool.’ That internal knowledge sharing is why we keep running hackathons. It’s fascinating what people can do when they come together with laser focus for a couple of days.”
But curiosity quickly gave way to responsibility. As much as Sam wanted to put AI into the hands of his teams and customers, he was acutely aware of the risks. Stories like Samsung engineers inadvertently leaking sensitive code into ChatGPT were cautionary tales. “You want to have it, but how do you bring it through in a safe way?” he says. “Especially with all our necessary data security governance.”
That concern shaped LawVu’s integration strategy. The company’s first AI feature was modest but impactful: a chatbot that could interrogate contracts. From there, LawVu added AI-generated summaries and, later, tools to extract dates and other key information from documents. The philosophy was clear: don’t try to replace lawyers, just free them from the grind.
“Lots of people have jumped to try and solve the lawyering part of it,” Sam says, “but we’re trying to solve the administrative tasks first and all the grunt work because that way your lawyers can do the lawyering and just focus on that.”
For Sam, this ties into a broader reflection on the nature of work. He has noticed how easy it is for people, himself included, to get caught up in the comfort of being busy. “People get trapped in the busyness of life. You can fall into the trap of, if I upload this, do this, tick that off, I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Whereas sitting still and thinking critically can feel extravagant, like you’re not producing anything. That’s actually the hardest stuff, and where the real value lies.”
AI, in his view, is a way of challenging that trap, taking away the comfort of repetitive admin and making space for critical thinking.
The benefits of AI, both within LawVu and for its customers, have been tangible. Engineers use it to write code faster, quality assurance teams use it to test more thoroughly, and it’s a tool sales and marketing staff use to generate content and materials at speed.
For in-house legal teams, the impact is more profound. “In-house legal has always been fighting to do more with less,” Sam says. “AI falls into that category — you’ve suddenly got a sidekick or an assistant that can do a huge amount of work.” Speed, efficiency and cost savings combine to create a net positive, enabling legal departments to deliver faster decisions and better outcomes for the businesses they serve.
Yet Sam is quick to stress AI’s limitations. Hallucinations remain a significant challenge. He experienced this firsthand when he asked an AI system what it knew about him. At first, it produced accurate biographical details. Then it confidently asserted that he held a law degree and an MBA. “Because AI lies so confidently, that’s the problem with it,” he says. “The first part’s been accurate, so you think there’s no reason not to believe the rest. Yet I’m pretty sure I didn’t get a law degree or an MBA.” That same issue applies to contracts and code: machines can generate quickly, but human oversight is indispensable.
The broader question is how much of the decision-making process can ever truly be handed over to AI. Sam is sceptical that the keys to the castle will ever be fully outsourced. “It’s no different to having someone with you who knows the answers – you’ve still got to decide what to do with them. Risk assessment, for example, is so subjective. What I find risky you may not, and it depends on your company’s goals. I can’t imagine outsourcing all of that without knowing the risks.”
Despite concerns, Sam is clear about AI’s place in the in-house legal world. Unlike law firms, where AI threatens the billable-hour model, corporate legal teams can embrace it wholeheartedly. It enhances their effectiveness without undermining their business model. “If you’re a legal function, you become small and mighty and incredibly quick,” he explains. “For in-house, AI is exponentially easier to embrace than for law firms.”
So will AI become the norm in legal work? Sam believes so. He likens it to the arrival of computers. Each wave of technology creates fears about job losses yet also creates new opportunities. “If you’re romantic about the type of work you’ve done and the way you’ve done it for years, that’s normally when you get left behind. Change is inevitable. It just depends: do you get on board or are you resistant to it?”
For those wondering how to start, Sam’s advice is straightforward: just use it. “The only way to not become irrelevant is to embrace the technology and learn more about it every day.”
At LawVu, that means embedding AI within a governance framework that ensures security and privacy. Strong partnerships with providers like Microsoft have been critical. He says once that governance is in place, customers can trust the technology as part of LawVu’s overall security posture.
On a personal level, Sam has woven AI into his daily life. He uses it for searching, drafting and error checking. “Before, if I wrote a post, I’d send it to someone to check. Now I run it through AI. It enables me to move faster.” He also enjoys AI’s lighter side, from creating playful images to experimenting with other AI models and offerings like Grok. For him, AI is not just a work tool but a source of curiosity and fun.
And that, perhaps, is his biggest message: AI should be seen as a supportive tool, not a threat. Some jobs will inevitably disappear, but new roles will emerge, just as they did when the iPhone created app developers or YouTube created influencers. As he points out, there are winners and losers. “Do you get involved, or do you become the person who is evolved out because you don’t or won’t embrace new tech?”
Sam acknowledges the pace of change is equal parts exciting and challenging. Established companies may have the resources to leverage AI, but he warns against complacency. The fate of Kodak – once dominant, then obliterated for failing to embrace digital – serves as a stark reminder.
For in-house lawyers navigating this changing tech landscape, Sam’s message is clear. AI is not going away, and it will reshape the way legal work is done whether we like it or not. The opportunity lies in engaging with it thoughtfully and embracing its power while remaining cautious of its flaws. As he says, “There’s really only one choice, and that is to embrace it.”
