The AI Dividend: What Will You Do With the Time AI Gives Back?

Live from ILTACON | Sponsored by Steno AI promises to make lawyers faster and more productive. But what happens when we use every hour it saves to simply do more? Live from ILTACON, David Cowen sits down with Sarah Hirebet, Director of Knowledge and Innovation at Stradley Ronon, for a conversation about the human side of AI adoption. Sarah explores why this technology shift is different from the ones legal has navigated before. AI can sound like us, write like us and engage with the same language lawyers use every day. But it does not bring lived experience or human judgment to the conversation. That creates a bigger challenge for legal leaders: how do we embrace the productivity AI creates without losing judgment, creativity, voice and the space to actually think? In this episode: Why this technology shift is fundamentally different from previous legal transformations Why AI fluency can create a false sense of confidence The risk of turning AI productivity into human exhaustion What the "AI dividend" means for lawyers and legal teams Why reclaimed time should not automatically become more work How legal teams can redesign systems instead of simply accelerating existing ones Why Sarah is teaching "humanity in the loop" How poetry, creativity and lived experience can help lawyers preserve their voice How Stradley Labs is approaching AI education and adoption Why AI should remain a methodology, not necessarily a job function What lawyers should think carefully about before delegating communication to AI Chapters 00:10 | Meeting the Moment of Change in Legal 01:42 | Why This Technology Shift Is Different 03:07 | AI Sounds Like Us, But It Doesn't Have Judgment 03:43 | When AI Superpowers Become Exhausting 05:12 | What AI Means for Talent, Culture and Work 05:44 | The AI Dividend: What Do You Do With the Time? 06:06 | From Doing the Work to Redesigning the System 06:48 | Humanity in the Loop 07:18 | How Lawyers Preserve Their Voice in an AI World 08:24 | Rest, Sabbaticals and Making Space for Creativity 10:29 | Why Knowledge Workers Need to Build Tangible Things 11:00 | Inside the Stradley Labs AI Training Program 12:25 | The New Titles Emerging Around AI 13:26 | Should AI Actually Be in Your Job Title? 14:51 | When Communication Should Stay Human 15:56 | What AI Still Can't Replicate The Big Idea The AI dividend isn't automatically more work. If AI gives us time back, leaders have a choice about where that time goes. It can become more output, more emails and more tasks. Or it can create space to redesign systems, develop new ideas, learn, reflect, build relationships and preserve the distinctly human capabilities that technology cannot replicate. Sarah calls this "humanity in the loop." The more fluent AI becomes, the more important it may be for lawyers to protect their own voice, judgment and lived experience. Follow SOLID for more conversations with the leaders shaping what comes next in legal: https://solid.legal/ 🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Share this episode and take your career from now to next! Never eat alone!