Forget the AI era, I need to better understand the digital era first

A note for those with access to A Lawyer's Practical Guide to AI: updates to the guide were uploaded last week, please log in to see newly added AI tools, case updates, and more!

Issue 27 

Here is an uncomfortable truth about AI:

The only lawyers who don’t need to learn about AI are retired lawyers. 

If you intend to continue practicing law, you’ll need to develop AI competency.  

But AI is an overwhelming topic for many lawyers. And if AI can feel overwhelming to a reasonably tech-savvy lawyer, what about the lawyers who haven’t fully joined the digital era yet?  

If you or someone you know needs to get up to speed on the digital era before developing AI competency, here is a resource that can help you. 

In 2022, professors Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley published a book called “The Digital Mindset” to explain what it takes to thrive in the age of data, algorithms, and AI. (This is an affiliate link, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through this link, at no extra cost to you.)

How Reading The Digital Mindset Can Help You 

The Digital Mindset explains that we have all been conditioned to see ourselves on one side or the other of the divide between technical workers and non-technical workers, but in reality, today we are all digital workers.[i] This book focuses on what workers need to know to become digitally proficient.[ii] Rather than setting unrealistic expectations of becoming data scientists, the authors propose that anyone can develop a digital mindset with about 30 percent of the information that would be necessary to achieve mastery, referred to throughout the book as the 30 percent rule.[iii] The book walks through what it takes to develop a digital mindset with the 30 percent rule in three key areas: collaboration, computation, and change.[iv] Each chapter includes interesting case studies, and at the end of each chapter is a short summary of what it will take to get to 30 percent for the given subject.  

This book is practical, encouraging, actionable, and worth your time if the task of joining the AI era intimidates you.   

Start Developing a Digital Mindset Today 

If you feel hopelessly behind, please know that it’s not too late for you. You jumped through significant hoops to become a lawyer. This challenge of developing a digital mindset, and then developing AI competency, will require far less of you. You can do this. 

Start today. Order The Digital Mindset or find it at your local library.  

It’s so easy to put overwhelming tasks off and tell yourself you’ll have more time to deal with it next month. But next month might be when one of your clients asks for your help with an AI-related issue, and you wish you’d been more proactive about developing AI competency. Or next month might be when your expert or co-counsel misuses AI, and you wish you’d known what questions to ask ahead of time. Now is the time to get started. 

If you know someone who could benefit from this issue of the newsletter, please consider forwarding it to them. Thank you! 

Thanks for being here. 

Jennifer Ballard 

Good Journey Consulting

P.S. When you’re up to speed on the digital era and ready to join us in the AI era, I can help you get there more quickly with A Lawyer’s Practical Guide to AI. Learn more about how the guide can help you here. 

[i] Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley, The Digital Mindset at 7 (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022). 

[ii] Id. at 10 – 11.   

[iii] Id. at 11. 

[iv] Id.