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Field Note: I WannAI Hold Your Hand: Learning AI From AI · AI Tools for Practicing Lawyers

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to AI Tools for Practicing Lawyers.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Practical, no-nonsense guidance to help attorneys put AI power to work in their practice right now.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: The legal world is suddenly overflowing with AI training.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't believe me, I want you to try this.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to just Google legal AI training, see what comes up, then switch over to your social media feeds, and you will see that you are now deluged, as I am, with all sorts of information about AI tools.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Tools for productivity, tools for drafting, tools for litigation, tools for HR.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're also going to see, and this is especially true in LinkedIn, you're also going to see another deluge of training resources for AI, consultants, CLE, webinars, prompt engineering seminars.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Claude is out of control.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody and their brother and sister are going to train you in 24 hours for$997 how to master all of the new Claude features.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: YouTube has rabbit holes.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: There are law firm coaches, there's co-pilot certification tracks, there's Gemini tutorials.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: There seems to be no end to the training tools available to help you with your AI tools.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So on top of the massive headache you're going to have when you try to figure out the right tool for your practice, is the headache you're going to have when you try to figure out how to best use those tools.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: How are you going to optimize the AI experience in your practice?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So as I was preparing this field note, I realized something pretty, it wasn't odd, but it was maybe not apparent, which is that for the most part, when I want to use an AI tool, I use AI itself to teach me the AI tool.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I suspect that I'm not alone in this, and that there are many other lawyers who are probably quietly doing the same thing.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So in my efforts to be clever, I decided to title this field note, I want AI Hold Your Hand.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I want to hold your hand, using AI to learn AI.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Ron Drescher.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the host of AI Tools for Practicing Lawyers.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to try to talk about how you can tame the AI training beast.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, as I said before, we're living through an explosion of AI education.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's never been more AI training available to lawyers, which really, when you think about it, it's kind of silly because AI is such a brand new genre of law firm experience.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: But there's massive confusion about what's useful, what's hype, what's going to make you money, what's going to waste you money, what's practical, and what actually fits a lawyer's current level of AI and technology fluency.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have a pet peeve, which is, or I feel like when I go through my LinkedIn feed, I got a little bit of a chip on my shoulders.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of this AI training assumes that lawyers are already operating at a Jetsons level understanding of technology.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I complain that LinkedIn feels like it's Jetsons lawyers talking to other Jetsons lawyers.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And really, that doesn't make sense because there are so many lawyers who've never entered a prompt into an AI chat box before.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So to have Jetsons level training for these lawyers makes absolutely no sense at all.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So my feeling is that AI training should meet you where you are, or should at least meet the user where the user is.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we've got Flintstones level lawyers and Simpsons level and Jetsons lawyers.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, if you give a Jetsons lawyer training design for a Flintstones lawyer, that's going to be a total waste of the lawyer's time and the trainer's time.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you really do want to connect the skill levels of the users.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: One of the earliest Flintstones, Simpsons, Jetsons level, and by the way, ChatGPT knows that when I write FSJ, I mean Flintstones, Simpsons, Jetsons.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna just use that abbreviation uh as necessary for the rest of this field note.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the earliest FSJ segments we did was about something incredibly basic, which was how to take screenshots.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I assume that every lawyer knows how to take screenshots on all of their devices iPhones, Android, Windows, Mac.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: But just in case they didn't, and I'm gonna put on this on the show notes what episode is, and I'll link to those.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I put in resources for taking screenshots on all of your devices.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And while at the time it felt almost absurdly basic, looking back, I feel vindicated that that's really the starting point for a lot of lawyers learning how to train themselves to use AI.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now, some lawyers are building agents, some lawyers are experimenting with APIs, they're using advanced workflows, but there are plenty of other lawyers that are still trying to figure out, you know, Google Drive and Microsoft Word.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, most lawyers don't know how to use Microsoft Word to the full extent of its features.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know how to use Zoom's features, they're still learning how to create PDFs.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And AI training often skips this reality entirely.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we keep trying to teach Jetsons level concepts to lawyers who are trying to learn how to navigate the maze of AI training, and that's not failure, but it is reality.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about using AI to learn AI.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the method to my madness because I mainly use AI to learn AI and to learn tech on my computer.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, for example, the website that we built out for this podcast built out on a platform that is called high level.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And all my AI tools know how to help me work through high level.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's actually uh wrapped by my marketing vendor, which is Cogent.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so my workflow often looks like this.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I take a screenshot, I upload the screenshot to AI, I prompt what I want to do, I ask what do I click, what do I do next?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: I ask it to explain where I am, I ask what went wrong or why I say I can't find what you're trying to tell me what to do, and then repeat.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Latherance repeat.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: So screenshot, upload, prompt, repeat.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I usually get to where I want to go.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: So for many lawyers, AI has quietly become an always-on tutor, an infinitely patient customer support representative, a workflow guide, and a learning companion.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this matters intensely on a psychological level.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because lawyers, look, look, if you're spending any time at all with AI information online, a lot of the verbiage may very well fly over your head.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, first of all, a lot of lawyers don't know what an API is.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: They've been around since the 90s.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that a lawyer is supposed to know what an API is, or what an MCP is, or what the difference is between Claude and Gemini, or where do I click here, or why isn't this working?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Why is this thing that I'm paying for not doing what I'm paying for it to do?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it can be embarrassing if you need to find a person who's going to explain these very basic concepts to you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So now, because AI is always on and always there and really pretty inexpensive, for the first time lawyers have access to a tutor that never gets tired of beginner questions.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: But as everybody knows, AI is imperfect.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: It can hallucinate or oversimplify, misunderstand settings, or confidently give bad advice.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've used ChatGPT to go through some software, and it turns out ChatGPT is using training manuals from 2023.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hey, I got news for you, bot.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's 2026 and everything has changed.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, it gets me to where I'm going, but there is some frustration.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And AI should certainly not be treated as the final authority about AI.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, but if you're going to use the system to learn AI, you could also know if you're a solo practitioner or if you're working for a larger firm and you've been tasked with the duty of training your team on the brand new shiny AI tools that the managing partner has authorized the firm to pay for.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can even ask AI to build you a full course of study, a structured curriculum, tailored to your level, practice area, and pace.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: I have done that on multiple occasions, and it's really a lifesaver.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So for solos without a team to share the learning burden, this can really be transformative.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I used the term maze before.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: When I was around eight years old, someone taught me a maze solving technique.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you go into a maze and if you keep your hand on the right wall at all times, you may wander around the entire maze, but eventually you will get out.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's what using AI to learn AI often feels like.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you may miss a shortcut, you may miss an obvious course of action to get you where you're going.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: You may fail to see the larger architecture, wander around inefficiently, take the scenic route, spend 45 minutes solving a problem an expert could solve in three minutes.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: But if you stick with it, you will eventually accomplish the task.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: AI guided learning, it's reliable, but it can be inefficient.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, in AI, the maze keeps changing.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Interfaces update, the buttons move, capabilities shift, new features appear overnight.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: AI is gonna get you there, but it may not get you there elegantly.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And some mazes are simple enough that a good human trainer could get you there promptly.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So while I started this field note selling AI as a trainer for AI, and while it sounds like I'm backpedaling on that, I'm not.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: AI is still an immensely effective way to get yourself around these AI tools.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't need to do AI, you could do that, but there are other ways that you can train yourself on these tools.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, there's training that already exists in the world, and you could get by a click.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: So while lawyers are searching for expensive or confusing AI training, you know, most lawyers already live inside either Microsoft, Google, or both.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: These days, both.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: And many have no idea how much excellent AI training is already there.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So before spending all your thousands of dollars, take a look at the training you already have.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to put links in the show notes for really excellent uh training opportunities in both the Microsoft and the Google ecosystems.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh things that you never even knew were there, but really can help you significantly level up your AI skills.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So finally, AI can guide you through the maze, but human trainers they can show you the shortcuts.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, some training is excellent, and admittedly, some is hype, some is going to be too advanced for your skill level, some is going to be too shallow for your skill level, but human beings still provide judgment, nuance, accountability, experience.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they can scratch their heads when you ask them a question and give you the answer.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's a hard thing to get from AI every time.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: So AI accelerates learning and humans transmit wisdom.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's a soundbite that ChatGPT gave me.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so I'm never going to be able to give you reliable recommendations for training because there is so much out there.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I've sat in on multiple training webinars and found them more or less useful.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: I recently sat through a webinar to help lawyers build skills in Claude.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: While the information was useful, the most compelling part of the session was the discipline that this law firm exercised in having everyone on the team buy in with scheduled calendar priority in-house workshops.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: This really helped move the firm forward with their new tools and had a major impact on the firm.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I still don't feel that it would be responsible for me to tell you, oh yeah, you should use this trainer because they're great, or use that trainer because they appeared on this podcast.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the better thing that I can do for you is to give you tools to help you identify a good trainer.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So let's assume you've already done some research and you've located a trainer that you think you may like.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've developed a series of three questions that I and there's going to be a deliverable on this.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's a download that you're going to be able to get from the website or from the show notes.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have this here for you, that you could ask prospective trainers to move you a little further along towards making your decision.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the first question you should always ask is what FSJ level is this training designed for?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what's the skill level?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got a team that has never opened an AI chatbot, you don't want to spend four hours learning how to make clawed agents and skills and plugins.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're not there yet.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: You may get there, but you're not there yet.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: You need to know that going in.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Question two: Does this training focus on workflows or just features?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like the best way to look at bringing an AI tool into your stack is to look at the pain points in your practice.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is intake a pain point?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Are you losing documents everywhere because you just don't have a good system for bringing documents, for ingesting documents?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is your legal briefing really slow?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you hate doing legal research?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so the question is: does the training focus on workflows or just features?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's no real benefit in learning a feature that doesn't address a pain point in your practice.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Then the third question is: does the training seriously address hallucinations, confidentiality, and governance?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Heather Gardner likes to remind me that when I started this podcast, I didn't really want to get heavily into ethics and governance.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because frankly, it's always been a little boring to me, and I'd like to skip past that.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I have come to see that in the AI world, governance is substantive.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just like an ethics or procedural concept.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you're on an enterprise level tool as opposed to a consumer-level tool, there are completely different rules that you can follow and have to follow in order to be able to use AI responsibly.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: You need to know that.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: You need to be able to recognize these hallucinations and understand how to address them.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: You need to be able to understand that your tool is not SOC2 or HIPAA compliance, and therefore you can't put confidential client information uploaded into it to ask it questions.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, like I said, governance has become substantive regarding AI law and practice.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Good AI training should make lawyers more effective, more careful, and more thoughtful, not merely more enthusiastic.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: So lawyers shouldn't feel embarrassed asking trainers questions before investing their time, money, trust, and reliance.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we put together an inquiry template.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: I put together two deliverables for this field note.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: One is the three questions that you can download and look at at your convenience.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the other is a form of email or direct mail, depending upon where you're finding your training resource, that you can send to a prospective trainer or as a DM on social media, so that you can get the ball rolling in your due diligence towards figuring out if this is a good way for you to train yourself and your team with the AI.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, maybe the future of AI training isn't choosing between human teaching and machine teaching.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's learning how to let each do what it does best.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes AI is the infinitely patient guide, helping you move one wall at a time through the maze.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes a human trainer walks in, points you at the exit, saves you three hours.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the first step towards learning AI is simply learning how to take the screenshot.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is Ron Drescher.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is AI Tools for Practicing Lawyers, and I look forward to seeing you next time.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for today's episode of AI Tools for Practicing Lawyers.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.