In this video, Griffen Hoyle, Head of Content at Crafty Counsel, sits down with Kavin Selvan, part of the Digital Solutions team at Norton Rose Fulbright, to explore how in-house legal teams can approach AI not as a silver bullet for productivity – but as a tool that works best with structure, clarity, and a strong foundation.
Kavin shares why the promise of generative AI often clashes with implementation realities. From poor data quality to systems that don’t integrate properly, many teams face a growing gap between AI hype and actual performance. But with the right groundwork, AI can deliver real, measurable results.
He outlines a practical approach to making AI work in legal workflows – starting with processes that are anything but flashy, and often overlooked.
Kavin’s take: AI needs more structure, not less.
Start with your foundations
AI doesn’t remove the need for organisation – it demands more of it. Kavin explains why teams need to map their workflows, define roles, and get their data in order before expecting results. The less glamorous the task, the more important it is.
Break processes into AI-sized steps
What a person might see as one task, AI needs in six or seven. Kavin shares how decomposing tasks into micro-steps, each with clearly defined input and output data, boosts accuracy, improves transparency, and reduces risk.
Make the black box visible
Using examples, such as NRF Horizon Scanner, Kavin shows how turning opaque processes into granular, auditable AI steps improves completeness and allows teams to see how the machine is “thinking” at every stage.
Apply across your legal toolkit
These workflow-first principles aren’t just for one platform. Kavin shares how they’re being applied across merger control, policy analysis, and investigations – helping in-house teams improve quality, accountability, and impact.
About Crafty Counsel
Crafty Counsel is the UK’s most dynamic and fast-growing legal Community. With members from across the globe, the Community is a hub for sharing experiences, learning together, and forming invaluable connections. Join for free to access the Community Hub App.
About Norton Rose Fulbright’s Digital Solutions Team
We develop new client-facing solution to emerging and industry-wide challenges. To find out more visit:Solutions | NRF Transform | Global law firm | Norton Rose Fulbright