AI adoption in legal is no longer just about exploring new tools.
For many legal teams, the real challenge is creating the conditions that allow AI adoption to succeed at scale: building confidence, simplifying processes, supporting experimentation, and helping people change how they work.
That was the focus of Radiant Law’s recent webinar with Jodi Duffield, Legal Innovation & AI Programme Lead at HSBC. In conversation with Radiant’s Zandri Fourie, Jodi shared practical lessons from leading AI adoption within a global legal function, including what worked, what did not, and what legal teams should focus on before rolling out technology at scale.
Here are some of the key takeaways from their discussion.
One of Jodi’s strongest messages was that successful AI adoption does not begin with the tool itself.
It starts with people, processes, leadership, and creating the confidence to experiment.
While generative AI has opened significant opportunities for legal teams because of its language capabilities, Jodi emphasised that the core foundations of change management remain the same:
Legal teams that focus only on the tool often struggle to achieve sustainable adoption.
Instead, organisations should focus on:
One practical lesson HSBC focused on early was encouraging experimentation without fear of failure.
Teams were encouraged to explore AI tools in both professional and personal contexts to become more comfortable with how different models behave and where they add value.
Importantly, Jodi highlighted that sharing failures was just as valuable as sharing successes.
Some of the strongest learning came from:
Creating a culture where people could openly discuss those experiences helped build trust and confidence across the legal function.
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was that AI adoption is fundamentally a change management exercise.
Even strong technology implementations struggle without:
Jodi shared how HSBC’s legal leadership actively participated in early training sessions and experimentation programmes, helping signal that learning and adoption were priorities across the organisation.
That visibility helped create psychological safety and encouraged wider participation throughout the team.
One of HSBC’s most effective initiatives was running four-week AI sprint programmes across legal teams globally.
Teams were given practical use cases to explore, while still having flexibility to adapt or create their own projects.
The sprint structure included:
Rather than treating AI as a “one prompt and done” exercise, teams were encouraged to iterate, reflect, and improve continuously.
That structure helped teams:
One of the clearest operational lessons from the session was this:
Do not automate broken processes.
Jodi stressed the importance of simplifying workflows before introducing AI tools into them.
Many organisations discover that:
AI can accelerate a process, but if the process itself is inefficient, automation may simply scale the problem faster.
Legal teams should first focus on:
Only then should AI be layered on top.
As HSBC expanded adoption across its global legal function, one of the most successful approaches was building a network of AI champions across jurisdictions and business lines.
This helped:
The organisation also created simple internal spaces where teams could share examples of what worked, what failed, and how they were using the tools in practice.
That visibility helped reduce the fear of being “left behind” and encouraged wider participation across the legal function.
Jodi explained that early AI metrics often focus on engagement and usage levels, but over time organisations need to move toward measuring business value.
Examples included:
HSBC also used A/B testing approaches to compare:
The goal was not simply to prove AI usage, but to understand where meaningful operational improvements were actually being created.
One of the strongest themes from the webinar was the importance of leadership behaviour.
Successful adoption depends heavily on leaders:
Jodi described how HSBC’s Chief Legal Officer personally attended early AI training sessions, helping reinforce that experimentation and learning were priorities across the legal function.
That visible support helped remove hesitation and gave teams permission to engage with AI confidently.
Final Thought: AI Adoption Is Really About Building Better Ways of Working
One of the clearest messages from the discussion was that AI adoption is not simply a technology programme.
It is about creating better ways of working.
For legal teams, that means:
The organisations seeing the most progress are not necessarily the ones chasing every new AI tool.
They are the ones building strong foundations, creating practical habits, and helping their teams adapt confidently to change.
You might be wondering what your next steps should be. Let us guide you with three easy options:
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