The AI Reality Check: What You Need to Ask First

AI is everywhere right now. New tools, new promises, new anxieties. For law librarians and knowledge teams, the pressure to “do something with AI” can feel intense given the clear advantages, even when the path forward isn’t clear.

At Vable, we don’t believe successful AI adoption starts with tools or timelines. It starts with better questions. Rather than treating AI as a race to automate, our new guide, AI as a Catalyst: How trust, governance, and human judgment become the real advantage, explores how AI can prompt organizations to examine how decisions are made, how knowledge is governed, and where human judgment remains essential.

Because in a world increasingly flooded with “AI slop”, trust is fast becoming the real differentiator.

Why clarity matters more than speed

The organizations that succeed with AI won’t necessarily be the fastest adopters; they’ll be the ones who are deliberate and considered.

Law firms and legal teams are already discovering that adding AI on top of messy knowledge, unclear governance or fragile workflows only amplifies risk. The real opportunity lies in using AI to surface better insight, improve access to trusted knowledge, and support lawyers in making stronger, faster decisions.

That requires clarity: about goals, risks, skills gaps, and responsibilities.

AI works best when it’s aligned to a clear strategy - and when people trust the outputs enough to use them.

The questions organizations should be asking

When we talk to law librarians and knowledge leaders, the most productive AI conversations often sound less like “What can this tool do?” and more like an interrogation into their processes and motivations. These are some key questions:

Strategy & vision

• How does AI align with our long-term goals?

• How can AI help the knowledge team become a strategic asset rather than a support function?

• What could become possible for lawyers with faster insight or better access to trusted information?

People & skills

• What skills do we need internally to work effectively with AI?

• Do we have the right balance of AI literacy, critical thinking, and information oversight?

• How will roles and expectations shift as automation increases?

• As AI takes on more routine tasks, which human responsibilities become more valuable, and who owns judgment, context, and quality?

Governance & risk

• How do we ensure accuracy, compliance, and quality in AI-supported work?

• What safeguards are in place to prevent bias, misinformation, or misuse of sources?

• Where do we draw clear boundaries for automated decision-making?

• Which decisions must always involve human oversight, and how do we make those handoffs explicit and defensible?

Technology

• Do we understand how AI tools could integrate with our existing systems and content?

• Is our knowledge accessible, structured, and governed well enough to support reliable AI output?

• What needs to be automated and where should manual processes remain to preserve trust and accountability?

The growing role of knowledge leaders

This is where librarians and knowledge professionals play a critical role. Not as gatekeepers of technology, but as strategic partners. They will be responsible for connecting AI tools to trusted content, shaping governance frameworks, and ensuring that automation enhances decision-making rather than undermining it.

At Vable, we see AI as an opportunity to elevate the work knowledge teams already do so well: curating quality information, providing context, and supporting confident judgment at scale.

The question beneath all the others

Perhaps the most important question isn’t “What can AI do?”

It’s:

“What do we need to understand about our knowledge, our people, and our goals before we adopt AI?”

That’s the question our guide is designed to help answer.

If you’re looking to move beyond hype and build AI practices that are trusted, defensible, and genuinely useful, AI as a Catalyst is a great place to start.