A group of general counsel at well-known companies have joined forces with the integrated law provider Factor to collaborate in hopes of speeding the adoption of generative AI in the corporate legal industry.
Founding organizational members of “The Sense Collective” include Adobe, Intel, Microsoft, Ford, CrowdStrike, Anglo American and DXC Technology, according to Factor.
The collective, which features several global general counsel, will work to address common challenges in-house legal teams face as GenAI and large language models quickly transform legal services.
“The Sense Collective is uniquely designed to create a shared framework for practical implementation, with tangible and highly programmatic workstreams across member services, shared prototype development, and community knowledge sharing,” a Factor press release said. “This approach ensures each member benefits from collective insights and force multiplies progress on the GenAI agenda, fostering a fast-cycle, adaptive learning environment.”
Factor said it will limit membership in the collective “to maximize engagement and peer collaboration.” The inaugural cohort will kick off in March.
Mike Haven, head of global legal operations at Intel, offered praise for the planned collaboration focused on generative AI.
"Instead of each organization expending effort and tackling the same questions in isolation, we're collaborating to find practical, expedited solutions, dispel hype from reality, and go far together,” said Haven, who recently served as the president of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, also known as CLOC.
Ed Sohn, Factor’s global head of insights and innovation, will oversee the collective.
He said the initiative “is a call for like-minded GCs to rally together, assembling to ensure that business as usual does not cause this moment to pass us by.”
“For legal departments inundated with conferences and webinars, The Sense Collective is about moving from a swirl of discussion to tangible action, focusing on real-world adoption challenges like strategic planning, use case development, and reliable intelligence about the state of the art,” Sohn said in a prepared statement.
Sohn previously co-authored a Factor white paper that said generative AI presents GCs with a “generational leadership opportunity.”
The emerging AI’s potential to transform the means of production at every level of work could impact 80% of legal spend, according to a press release about the Factor white paper.
Factor CEO Varun Mehta said The Sense Collective will build on the enthusiasm among the legal profession and business colleagues about how GenAI will strengthen corporate legal operations.
For example, a recent LexisNexis survey found that 76% of Fortune 1000 executives expect generative AI will produce cost savings for their legal departments and 72% expect the technology will increase the ability to complete more work in-house.
Additionally, two-thirds of in-house counsel approve of law firms using generative AI in legal matters, LexisNexis Legal & Professional reported.
“Now is the time for general counsel to be GenAI sense-makers: for their teams, their businesses, and the legal industry,” Mehta said.