TrustPath | The evolving role of General Counsel in the age of AI

Key takeaways:

General Counsels play a critical role in navigating legal compliance across various sectors within companies. With AI's integration, their scope of work broadens, requiring them to manage additional legal complexities related to technology.
The emergence of AI technologies necessitates that General Counsels deepen their understanding of AI regulations. This responsibility adds to their existing workload, highlighting the need for continuous learning and adaptation.
To effectively handle the complexities of AI compliance, General Counsels should consider proactive measures, including the adoption of AI compliance platforms. These tools can offer valuable support in staying abreast of evolving regulations, ensuring that companies remain compliant.

General Counsels carry a heavy load of responsibilities that are crucial for keeping their companies safe and compliant with the law. They deal with a lot more than just commercial contracts. They have to make sure their companies follow many different laws all over the world, like GDPR, DMA, DSA, and others. These tasks are very important to prevent any legal risks.

Now, with technology growing fast, especially in the AI field, there's a new area they need to learn about. Countries are starting to regulate how AI is developed, deployed, and used, and this means General Counsels have even more to do. They have to understand these new AI laws to keep their companies out of trouble. This adds a big challenge to their already busy job.

In this article, we're going to talk about how these new AI laws are making General Counsels' jobs even more demanding. We want to see how these changes affect their work and what it means for companies trying to follow the law with AI. We'll also talk about ways General Counsels can manage these new challenges and keep their companies on the right side of the law as they develop, deploy, or just use AI.

Before we dive into that, let's start with a look at what General Counsels usually do. It's a tough job, How will they handle everything? Let's find out more about their role in this new situation.

The Traditional Role of General Counsel

General Counsels are the legal protectors of a company. They make sure everything the company does is within the law. They help prevent legal problems and make sure the company follows rules everywhere it operates. They focus on three main things: sales, procurement, and how the company runs , i.e., operational processes.

Sales and commercial activities - they look over and agree to sales contracts to make sure they're good for the company and don't break any laws.
Procurement processes - they check contracts with suppliers to make sure everything is legal and the company is protected.
Operational Processes - they ensure all the company's activities are done the right way and follow the law, helping avoid legal troubles.

Now, with new laws about artificial intelligence (AI) coming up, General Counsels have more to look after. These new AI rules add another layer to their job, making it even more challenging.

The Evolved General Counsel's Role in The Age of AI

Now that we've explored the main tasks General Counsels handle in companies let's talk about an extra challenge they face, especially in companies that develop AI models or applications or just use AI within their business operations.

We all witness that the world of AI is changing fast, and with it comes new regulations that businesses need to follow. The European Union has already started this process with the EU AI Act, showing that regulations for AI are just around the corner. Other countries are also working on their own legal frameworks to regulate AI, and it's expected that by 2025, most of G20 countries will have AI regulations in place. This means companies that use AI don't have much time to make sure they're doing things right according to these new regulations.

For already overloaded General Counsels, new AI regulations can feel like a nightmare, demanding swift adaptation in an already packed schedule.

For General Counsels, this situation necessitates learning about AI regulations, implementing key provisions, and staying on top of any changes or updates to safeguard the AI companies they work for. This is a significant task because new regulations will emerge, and existing ones will evolve based on market trends, requiring substantial effort to remain up-to-date.

Let’s explore how General Counsels can turn new responsibilities into their strengths.

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High Expectations Require Immediate Actions

When General Counsels talk to their sales or engineering teams about AI rules, they often find that these teams are not too worried, thinking that the General Counsels are overreacting. This is because these teams expect to just follow what the General Counsels tell them to do, since GCs are the ones whose task is to figure out and apply these rules. However, this puts a lot of pressure on General Counsels. They need to understand very complex laws, know everything about how AI products are developed or used in their company, make these rules easy to understand, guide multiple internal teams to implement them, and check if everything is done right. This is a big task.

To not get overwhelmed by this, it's important for General Counsels to start planning for AI regulations early on. They need to know what the rules are, what they need to do, and how to do it well, without getting lost in complicated legal language enriched with lots of technical expressions.

This is where TrustPath can really help. The first thing General Counsels should do is take our free EU AI impact assessment, which helps them understand where they stand with AI regulations. After that, TrustPath guides them in a clear way through what they need to do. We make things simple and help them every step of the way. With TrustPath, General Counsels can manage projects instead of getting stuck in legal details, telling product teams what they need to do.

By working with us, General Counsels can avoid a lot of stress because we'll handle the complex parts of AI regulations. This allows them to focus on their many other responsibilities, without the extra worry of keeping up with AI laws. Ready to start? Start our free EU AI impact assessment.

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