Coping with AI-driven hyper abundance: the legal edition

Strategy guru Alex MH Smith wrote recently about how, thanks to AI, he thinks we're entering an era of hyper abundance

He wrote about how that hyper abundance will impact business strategies

But that made me think about the impact of hyper abundance on the wider legal environment in which those businesses will apply those strategies 

Because, taking Alex's cue, I think we're going to have a hyper abundance of legal stuff

After all, it's never been easier to generate legal stuff, from threatening letters to claim forms to witness statements

And its only going to keep getting easier

So if you're a CEO wanting to land your plan, it makes sense to entertain & explore what that 'legal hyper abundance' might mean for your business's ability to land that plan, if it does come to pass

I see two possible responses: 

First, you keep waiting to react harder after each legal thing pops up

Like a depressing, endless game of legal whack a mole

That's sounds expensive and eventually overwhelming, as more & more legal stuff does pile up 

Or second, you get much much better at predicting & evading potential legal issues

So that however much legal stuff does get generated, you're sufficiently prepared & agile enough to skilfully steer through them unscathed

So you safely get to your plan's end goal

Which sounds pretty effective and efficient, if you ask me

But how do you do that?

Well, I know from my time as a GC that you definitely can't do it by approaching your legal stuff the way you've likely approached it so far:

By hoping for the best, and then reacting and fighting if the worst comes to pass

(Just like the hourly paid legal industry would like you to)

Instead, you're going to need to be what I call 'proactively legal intelligent'

You're going to need to proactively think about legal stuff

You're going to need to set time aside to do that thinking

(To turbo charge that thinking, you might want to bring in the right experience alongside you - someone who's been there, seen it & done it to help you identify what might be out there and plot a course through it)

When doing that thinking, you're going to need focus on the relationships on which your business is built

From the obvious ones like customers, suppliers and staff

To the oft-ignored ones of regulators, competitors and neighbours

That's because every legal issue that you might face in racing towards your plan will be started by a person & their feelings

Each will come from some level of neglect or unhappiness within one of your relationships 

Which, happily, makes them predictable and fixable

I've done reactive fighting for too many years to mention

I'm now focussed squarely on applying proactive legal intelligence to help businesses land their plan

Because I believe that's the only way to cope with the possibility of AI driven legal hyper abundance

If you're a CEO who fully intends to land their plan, our regular Clear Course newsletter is written specifically for you. Find it here: https://www.relationshipfirstlaw.com/newsletter