Source: Aba Journal
Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Shashank Pande and Rachita Maker, the co-founders of Ekamm8, a new forward-thinking legal innovation and consulting company.
They discussed how technology is transforming traditional legal practices, ways that Ekamm8’s agentic artificial intelligence services are revolutionizing contract management and compliance, how leaders in legal should encourage technology adoption, and where innovation in the legal industry is headed.
Ari Kaplan: How do you see technology transforming legal practices, and how will Ekamm8 help legal teams navigate that shift?
Rachita Maker: Technology has been transforming for many years, but previously, it was used on the back end. That is where alternative legal services providers were using it. Technology has moved to the front end and is mainstream. There has been a huge shift in the last three to four years, especially in the past two, with generative AI’s emergence. The change of interest to agentic AI has been even faster. I don’t know what’s next, but it will probably come in the next six months. It’s a fascinating time, and I am excited about what’s coming.
Shashank Pande: Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can make decisions and take actions autonomously while adapting to changing situations. It could be one AI agent or multiple agents working to complete complex tasks. Clients are coming to Ekamm8 with their unique requirements and challenges that their teams are facing. Our team of experts then customizes agentic AI services for them while always ensuring that the controls are with the humans, which is very important in legal. Agentic AI solutions deliver a consistent output within the trained framework that the client has shared with us or that we develop with the client. It also mitigates errors because of the limited human engagement. And it enables teams to scale and empower quicker turnaround. We are able to scale agentic AI services instantly. You no longer need to spend weeks hiring, training and recruiting talent for specific projects. You can deliver results around the clock, giving clients the flexibility to operate efficiently across various time zones.
Ari Kaplan: How has Ekamm8 tailored its approach to suit the unique needs of different legal teams?
Shashank Pande: Ekamm8 tailors its approach to the unique needs of its clients through a combination of focused, personalized service provided by a team of legal and business experts. Every employee understands how to align business and legal strategies. Ekamm8 conducts tailored assessments, interviews and workshops to understand each client’s pain points and technology maturity level. When selecting a technology for an organization and a project, it has to be fit for purpose. It should be able to solve the problem at issue and work into the future, as well. It is crucial to develop customer-centric strategies because not all clients are the same, so their needs differ. In legal operations, for example, we break down high-level business goals into specific legal outputs that create measurable outcomes that the GC or the legal team can favorably report to enterprise leaders. We also develop clear legal roadmaps for different departments and identify technology or processes that allow the legal team to handle more requests without additional resources. We strive to deliver tangible results to the clients and recognize that the approach may differ for each.
Rachita Maker: Leaders have a responsibility and an obligation to use technology themselves. Gen Z does not need any encouragement. Technology is changing so fast, and it is almost impossible to keep up, but I think leaders in law need to be ready and willing to take some calculated risks. An initiative may fail, but that should not be a reason to avoid trying something new while keeping your organizational guardrails in mind and ensuring that you have governance protocols. There is no 100% solution. All available technologies enable humans to do their work more efficiently. Even autonomous agentic AI decision-making is based on human judgment. We do not want artificial intelligence making independent decisions, but you should have some risk appetite in leadership.
Shashank Pande: We have seen a significant upward trajectory in the last few years, driven mainly by changing client demands, technological advancements and regulatory landscape shifts. We have also seen considerable investment post-COVID, so the legal tech ecosystem has expanded. The structure of law firms has changed, with a chief innovation officer often providing insight and strategy on driving innovation to executive leaders. Innovation in law is about simultaneously adopting new technologies, changing how legal services are delivered, and improving how legal professionals work. Finally, data is becoming more complex, and advanced tools are central to effectively leveraging that information.
Read the full article: https://www.abajournal.com/columns/article/how-agentic-ai-services-are-revolutionizing-contract-management-and-compliance
