Justin Hectus, Managing Director at Harbor Labs, talks with Eric Dodson-Greenberg, EVP and Chief Legal Officer of Cox Media Group, to put that question into practical terms.

Eric shares his "human at the gate" approach to AI-enabled law departments, where accountability determines when people need to step in. Their discussion ranges from building a culture that rewards curiosity and experimentation to integrating lawyers and legal ops more closely, making smarter technology bets, and creating room to test ideas without expecting an A-plus answer on the first try.

What we cover:

• Why curiosity, critical thinking and liberal arts training matter more in the AI era
• Off-label uses: pushing vendors as thought partners to adapt tools for problems they weren't built to solve
• Why "start now, make small bets" beats waiting for the perfect tool
• Human oversight as an accountability question
• Why legal ops has to be in the room, and why legal may be the on-ramp for enterprise AI adoption
• Leading by "bad example": modeling that it's okay to try and not have it figured out

Listen to the full episode on

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• YouTube

Key moments:

• 08:43 - Moving beyond using AI to do the same work faster
• 13:30 - A curious culture beats the best tool
• 15:11 - Making it safe to experiment
• 21:09 - Bringing lawyers and legal ops closer together
• 31:49 - Acknowledging the real work behind AI adoption