The AI tools we’re learning and using today will be replaced.
That reality has led many of us, me included, to hesitate about investing a lot of time into what sometimes feels like the AI tool hamster wheel. Every time I learn how to use the latest AI tool, it is quickly replaced or upgraded. So I start over with learning the next thing, leading to a repeating pattern of having to figure it all out again. I’ve found myself thinking maybe I should hold off and wait for AI platforms to stabilize instead.
Colin Lachance’s answer to a question during How to Contract’s recent webinar about Claude for Legal helped me realize how risky that kind of thinking is.
Here’s what he said:
"I'm not saying Claude for Legal is the tool you will use in the future. I'm saying it's the lens through which you'll be able to develop the best understanding of what's coming."
In other words, we are not just learning a tool for the sake of the tool. We are learning it to prepare for what is to come. We’re learning it to better advise our clients on AI-related concepts and grow the skills we will need as this technology keeps changing.
We are seeing firsthand our contracts world shifting dramatically, with AI tools at the center of it. And we need to be right there keeping pace. We can’t support our clients on deals involving the latest AI tech if we don’t understand it. The companies we serve are not standing still waiting. So neither can we.
This importance extends to our careers as well. I witnessed firsthand over the past 30 years how some lawyers and professionals get left behind with every wave of new technology. We’ve already invested so much into learning what we know. We protect our contracting skills and relevance by staying engaged with these tools as they evolve.
What I realized, and am saying to those who also feel that trepidation, is that we have to find a way to push past that hesitancy and engage with these tools anyway.
Yes, these AI tools we use today are probably not going to be the ones we use in five years. But the lawyers and contract teams who engage with them now will have fundamental insights and skills that AI tool observers will not have. The ones who dive deep now to learn AI tools will be in a better position. They’ll know how to ask the right questions and push back on the wrong answers. They’ll better recognize what AI tools can and cannot do when used for client workflows.
That is why we learning the current round of AI tools is so important. We’re developing foundational skills for our future.
