The Perfect Pilot — Making the Right Things Happen
At Hyperscale Group, we have been involved in a huge number of pilots and proof of concepts over the years — almost too many to count. These have come in many shapes and sizes, spanning a wide range of sectors and disciplines. In recent months, however, we have been engaged in a significant number of AI pilots, including many involving the leading tools in the legal market. In these engagements, we have covered the full spectrum of roles: advising on pilots, leading them, and doing the heavy lifting. We have worked with suppliers, supported service delivery, and carried out a whole range of functions for clients.
This breadth of experience has given rise to a clear realisation: To run a successful AI pilot today, things have changed radically. The way you construct, prepare for, and deliver a pilot is completely different to what it once was. And if you get it wrong, the consequences can be significant.
So, what exactly has changed? Below, we set out some key points relevant to a successful modern-day pilot.
These Pilots Go to the Root of Legal Work
Today's AI pilots are fundamentally different from those of the past. They go much more to the root of legal work itself — touching how lawyers think, how they operate, and how value is delivered to clients. This is not simply about layering technology onto existing workflows. It is about understanding, at a granular level, where the real pain points lie in every legal area. A once size fits all approach absolutely won’t work and our legal knowledge helps enormously.
For a full-service firm, getting under the skin of the needs and pain points in every practice area is genuinely hard. But it is absolutely essential. A pilot that is not grounded in that understanding will struggle to demonstrate meaningful value and may well fail.
The Views of Fee Earners Matter More Than Ever
The views of fee earners are now more important than they have ever been. To take these seriously, you really do need to understand what frustrates them, where they lose time, and what would genuinely make a difference to how they work. Listening to their perspectives — and being seen to listen — is critical to building the engagement necessary for a pilot to succeed. Mini case studies showing value really help too.
Perhaps we now have a solution to the digital onion conundrum we have written about before - Outpaced and Overwhelmed by Work: LegalTech Needs a New Prioritization Playbook — Hyperscale Group Limited
Boards Are Increasingly in the Room
The views of Boards are also increasingly important. Yes, they have always been, but this has risen in importance as this goes to the root of quality, efficiency, pricing and value proposition. Risk too. Senior leadership needs to be persuaded and taken on the journey, not simply presented with conclusions after the fact.
Understanding the User
Seniority of user matters throughout: how these tools are used will differ significantly depending on the level of the person using them, and pilots need to account for this. Similarly, there will be notable and sometimes radical differences in how business services teams use these tools compared to fee-earning teams. These distinctions must be built into the design of any pilot if you want real results.
Versatility: Assessing the Full Range of Possibilities
One of the most important — and perhaps underappreciated — aspects of today's AI tools is how genuinely versatile they are. In designing a pilot, it is therefore essential to assess not only what the tools can do today, but also the future applications that neither the firm nor the supplier has yet thought of. The art of the possible extends well beyond the obvious use cases. Not all AI is equal either, but it is important to compare with other enterprise tools like Microsoft Copilot.
In addition, serious consideration must be given to what legacy technology these new tools might replace. We have seen examples of clients who have significantly thinned down their technology stack as a direct result of bringing some of these new AI tools on board. We are not suggesting these tools are a panacea for everything but what we are saying is this: if used correctly, and if a well-constructed and thoroughly thought-through pilot has been designed and delivered, they can deliver real and lasting value.
Let’s also not forget the versatility of how we interface with these tools. Chat, dictation, tabulation, workflows and agents, portals/shared instances and Work/Outlook ad ins. All of these need to be exposed and tested and the feedback will vary. Where different fee earners find value will vary but all are legitimate.
Assessing Value in a New Way
There is also a critical shift in how the value of technology is being assessed. No longer are you evaluating a new tool against an identical genre of technology — comparing like with like. Instead, you are looking at the value of technology overall, across an increasingly broad competitive landscape. And in truth, many of these AI tools are outclassing other tools significantly in this regard.
This area involves high levels of investment, and the stakes are correspondingly high. It is absolutely vital to get it right. There are long-term procurement objectives that need to be achieved, and perhaps more so than in any other area of technology, people are looking carefully at return on investment. That said, many would argue that this framing is, to some extent, academic — because these capabilities are rapidly becoming essential to doing legal work at all. The question is not whether to invest, but how best to do so.
Listen to Suppliers — But Think for Yourself
The suppliers running these tools have a great deal of experience, and their insights should not be ignored. They have seen what works and what does not, across a wide range of deployments, and listening carefully to their views is genuinely valuable.
That being said, it is perhaps better not to simply adopt what they recommend without scrutiny as every business has different objectives. What works well for one organisation may not be a perfect fit for another. Supplier guidance should be taken seriously and used as an important input — but it should be the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.
A Huge Change Management Exercise
The preparation, engagement, and nature of what is assessed in a modern pilot will be very different to what was looked at in the past. These pilots bring forward completely different working methods, and that has significant implications. There is a substantial change management job to be done to get the most out of them. Beyond that, it may require a firm to rethink its entire approach to knowledge management — how it captures, shares, and builds on what it knows. This is not a minor undertaking, and it should not be treated as one.
Making the Right Things Happen
At Hyperscale Group, our core strapline is simple: “our job is to make the right things happen” and never has that phrase felt more relevant than it does right now in the context of AI pilots.
We have seen modern-day pilots that have failed, and others that have thrived. Much of what has determined the difference comes back to how the pilot was constructed and delivered. The foundations matter enormously, and a huge amount of work needs to go into the sharpening of the axe as opposed to the cutting down of the tree.
If you would like to discuss how we can support you in this regard, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can reach us at dereksouthall@hyperscalegroup.com.
Hyperscale Group works with law firms, legal teams, and legal technology suppliers across the full lifecycle of pilots and proof of concepts — from design and preparation through to delivery, evaluation, and procurement.
Hyperscale Group are a Technology, Digital and Operational Advisory and Implementation Business with over 25 years plus deep market experience. We work for In-House teams and Professional Services Firms all around the world and support them developing and implementing their strategies. We help In-House Legal Teams make the right things happen.
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For more information, please contact Dereksouthall@hyperscalegroup.com
