Recorded at the Legal Geek Conference in Amsterdam, this episode takes you inside one of the largest generative AI rollouts in the legal industry. Bert Vries, Director of Information Technology & Innovation at CMS Netherlands, led the global deployment of Harvey across 7,000+ lawyers in over fifty countries a journey that started with a simple email in 2023 and is still going.
In conversation with Hidde Bruinsma, Bert shares the real story behind CMS's AI transformation:
- How CMS went from pilot to global rollout, and why it took two and a half years
- The shift from horizontal, firm-wide AI features to vertical, practice-specific use cases
- Why Banking & Finance uses Harvey differently than Labor Law or Corporate M&A
- The concrete example of reviewing 10,000 invoices and why no lawyer signs up for that
- How AI doesn't just drive efficiency, but can genuinely improve the quality of legal advice
- Why the ROI of legal AI isn't measured in euros saved, but in changing how people feel about their work
- How the billable hour model is being challenged, and why Bert believes in a nuanced, hybrid approach to pricing
- What the dotcom era taught Bert about innovation hype and why today's AI wave feels eerily familiar
- Why so many firms get stuck in analysis paralysis, and Bert's Columbus analogy for breaking free
- How CMS chose Harvey: no lengthy RFP, no feature matrix just experimentation and momentum
Bert offers a refreshingly honest perspective on what it actually takes to land AI in a global law firm, not just the technology, but the patience, the conversations, and the willingness to experiment while others are still analysing.
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