Gilbert + Tobin rethinks the business of law with AI
What happened
Gilbert + Tobin, a leading Australian corporate law firm, is reshaping its practice by embedding AI, particularly ChatGPT, into daily work. Partner and CEO Sam Nickless describes a three‑phase journey: initial experimentation, boosting personal productivity, and scaling to organisational productivity with tools like ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Work and Codex. The firm set strict rules against entering client data, then rolled out a secure, controlled AI environment with Australian data residency and role‑based access. Adoption is high, with 87% of enabled users actively using ChatGPT, far above the firm’s typical tool uptake. Leadership models the technology themselves, emphasizing AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement, and stresses human‑focused tasks such as client interaction, coaching and mentoring.
Why it matters
For ordinary readers, this shows how even highly regulated professions can use AI to free staff for more personal, value‑added work, potentially improving service quality. It also illustrates that strong governance and leadership endorsement are key to successful AI adoption.
Is this a big deal?
Get stories like this every morning
The day's AI news in plain English, in your inbox at 8:30 IST. Free.
More from OpenAI
Introducing ChatGPT WalletOpenAI · 13 Nov 2026Shield helps technicians hand off legacy portal work with OpenAIOpenAI · 13 Nov 2026OpenAI launches ChatGPT Wallet, AI agents pay for purchaseOpenAI · 13 Nov 2026OpenAI disbands its robotics team as its general models start running robotsOpenAI · 13 Nov 2026Yang-Mills, OpenAI proof, and the mass gap problemOpenAI · 13 Nov 2026This page was collected from openai.com and summarised automatically by AIPulsee's pipeline. See how it runs.