We mustn’t let AI snuff out our imagination

As we approach the holidays and the end of the year, it’s common that we feel the urge to take stock of the year that is ending and look forward to what lies ahead in the dawning new year. 

One of the many achievements I am proud of this year is my involvement – alongside She Breaks the Law and Linklaters – in producing a groundbreaking new report, No Woman Left Behind: Closing the AI Gender Gap in Law, based on a first-of-its-kind industry survey exploring how women in law perceive, and are currently experiencing, the impacts of AI. We have followed it up with a further survey which I hope you can complete as it is so critical we collect the data and seek further insights into who is winning/ losing in the AI race. Please do fill it in here.

For me, the rise of AI and the fast adoption by lawyers (relative to previous waves of tech) makes this the one thread that will link 2024 to 2025! With the report and its findings very much in mind, as well as in light of the numerous conversations I’ve had about AI’s disruptive impact on legal work, I decided to ask ChatGPT for its predictions of the three biggest trends for the legal sector in 2025. Here is what it had to say:

1. Widespread Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation

2. Increased Emphasis on Legal Tech and Digital Transformation

3. Client-Centric and Flexible Legal Services

I won’t fill your inbox with the expanded bullet points that the AI used to qualify these headline predictions. What struck me was the almost gleeful tone each took: “Here I am, the best-known piece of AI technology in the world, confidently predicting a future in which me and my kind have come to dominate everything”. I have no doubt that ChatGPT’s number one prediction is likely to prove extremely accurate, but it hardly fills me with joy when I look ahead to 2025 and beyond.

Here’s the thing: I find the world of AI as it is currently presented to us extremely boring. Why? Because it is essentially devoid of imagination, which is one of the most fundamental attributes and irrepressible desires of being human: to express ourselves creatively. 

As AI comes to dominate not only the legal sector but also virtually every sphere of human endeavour, this is one aspect of humanity that this technology will hopefully never come to replace: our thirst for new ideas. 

AI helps us to be more productive, but the bland uniformity it delivers is antithetical to our ability to imagine and be creative. Personally speaking, I don’t want grey uniformity. I much prefer the colourful kaleidoscope of diversity and differences in opinion and ideas. But AI is making this increasingly difficult. 

I see this among my fellow parents in particular, who are growing more and more concerned about how their children can creatively stand out in a world increasingly dominated by AI and automation. 

What unique talent, trait or achievement can help get their offspring through the algorithms that dominate the modern jobs market, where it is not unheard of for applicants to have to go through nine rounds of interviews before getting an offer or rejection? 

The answer to this question is also my top prediction for 2025 and for many years to come: that it will become ever more important to cling on to our imagination, to exercise it and nourish it, so that we can be nourished by it in turn. 

Our ability to look at things creatively and from different perspectives, to find creative solutions to complex problems: these are the innately human traits that will always set us apart from the dull homogeneity of AI.

Supporting returners

Say what you will about AI, I definitely won’t argue with ChatGPT’s prediction about the further rise in 2025 of client-focused and flexible legal services. So while we’re on the subject of putting the human imagination to good use, I want to talk about the success of Obelisk’s 12-month-long Returners programme.

It takes vision, creativity and a jettisoning of uniform thinking on the part of employers to look at legal talent in the round and see the huge potential that returners bring to the table. But the payoff for law firms is huge, allowing them to offer precisely the client focus and flexibility that benefits everyone by tapping into a pool of exceptional talent that they might otherwise miss out on.

This month, I am excited about…

Taking a break for Christmas and being with my family. When we allow ourselves to rest, when we get to spend quality time with our loved ones, this is when we really replenish our creativity and imagination. As the saying goes, you can’t draw from an empty well.

Looking ahead, we are launching our next chapter in supporting returners to the legal sector: Obelisk’s Returners Development Programme 2025and are on the lookout for partner organisations. So if you are a firm with a human-first vision and enough imaginative power to see the huge value in working with returners, the team and I at Obelisk Support | B Corp Certified would love to hear from you.