Given the daily headlines about artificial intelligence, it's possible that the technology has passed the tipping point. Particularly with ChatGPT, the latest advancement in machine learning, or generative AI, which has drawn a multi-year, multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft. With its fast rise to popularity, the technology is now suddenly positioned to disrupt countless industries. For legal and compliance professionals, the ramifications may be far-reaching, spanning from how governance is approached, to ethics, emerging compliance requirements, best practices, workflows and day-to-day tasks.

Aside from Microsoft's plans for ChatGPT, other technology giants have released similar AI or language models, all which aim to offer unprecedented automation, search, analysis and predictive, humanlike intelligence.

As with preparing for the impacts of any buzzy new technology, conjecture must be parsed from fact-based reality. Yet how can strategy and decisions be formed when the facts have not yet been fully revealed, experienced or validated?