6 Helpful Tips For Legal Teams Establishing AI Governance Policies

The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has arrived and it's redefining how we work, live, and interact. But what does this mean for your legal team? As AI becomes more entrenched in everyday operations, establishing the right policies is crucial in mitigating potential data breaches and confidentiality issues. With proper guidance, AI opens the doors for different departments to take advantage of new efficient strategies and transformations in the workplace.

With nearly every employee having access to some form of AI technology in the workplace today, the lack of guidance can lead to misuse or inadvertent confidentiality issues. Legal teams must step up, support safe AI adoption, and maximize its benefits by establishing a pathway to AI governance policies.

But how do legal teams navigate ever-evolving AI technology, especially when the regulatory landscape remains unclear? There is no need for a stark choice between severe restrictions and passive inaction; through the right strategic approach, legal teams can help their companies use AI while mitigating inherent risks.

Tips on how best to establish AI governance policies

As a first step, legal teams can repurpose their existing data privacy practices to manage AI usage without hampering operations. This involves starting with dialogue, defining the boundaries, and making informed decisions.

As part of this process, you must engage stakeholders, ask crucial questions, and be an advocate for customer privacy. For instance, legal teams should meet with product teams to discuss potential AI developments within your product offerings and gain customer insights as to what aspects of privacy or security are most important to them. These interactions can help shape future AI data governance policies and product roadmaps within your company.

While socializing ideas within your business, consider ideas against the backdrop of what your legal team needs to solve for. Every business should promote fundamentals like:

- transparency about how data is collected, used, and stored

- intellectual property rights and managing IP concerns

- customer consent management

Starting your AI governance journey might seem daunting, here are some helpful tips from industry experts to help you start your AI governance frameworks:

1.) Review existing data privacy and security policies and procedures

2.) Identify any overlapping areas or considerations that should be incorporated into the AI governance framework.

3.) Verify what gaps exist that pertain to how you use (or intend to use) AI

4.) Establish guidelines on data usage, retention, and security measures that apply to both AI systems and other data processing activities.

5.) Understand how AI systems will be used—and how they may impact individual privacy or access to sensitive company data. Align this with your existing privacy disclosures and security policies.

6.) Designate roles and responsibilities for monitoring AI usage and compliance, integrating this with your existing privacy teams, security teams and AI governance tools.

Embrace the changes that come with evolving regulations, product capabilities, and client expectations, and be ready to modify your policies accordingly. Establishing AI governance is not about curtailing innovation, but rather promoting safety and accelerating AI impact on your business. Spread awareness within your organization, think about administering an internal AI governance certification tests among your teams to help educate and empower coworkers.

So, start your journey today by asking the tough questions and having the conversations no one else is willing to. Find your balance between productivity and protection, and remember to stay updated on developing regulations. It's a challenge, but it's also an exciting opportunity to exhibit curiosity, ingenuity, and will only help put your company in a great position to succeed with AI! Discover how LinkSquares is supporting legal teams with their approach to AI governance and security today.