The Chess Clock Is Running: Winning the AI Game Requires More Than the Right Technology 

„Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.“ 
— Dr. Max Euwe, World Chess Champion 

Growing up my grandfather taught me how to play chess. This was in an era where grandparents didn’t let their grandchildren win at games to encourage them or make them feel better. For years, I never beat him. When I was 13 years old I finally won my first and only game against him. After that, he “retired” from playing me. It was as if I passed the test and the teacher was no longer required. 

When I played tournament style chess for the first time I realized how incredibly different it is. My cousin and I once had a family gathering chess match that lasted 3 days because both of us were so competitive that every move required a significant amount of thought. The quote above from Dr. Euwe illustrates how thought alone is not enough. Tactics are intellect in action through observation and planning. 

In theory, a player could spend hours evaluating every possible move before making a decision. 

In tournament chess, however, the clock creates value in decisiveness. 

Players are not judged solely on the quality of their decisions. They are also judged on their ability to make those decisions within a limited amount of time. A brilliant strategy that takes too long to execute can still result in defeat. Running out of time is often just as damaging as making the wrong move. 

Legal organizations face a remarkably similar challenge as they evaluate artificial intelligence. 

Few law firms, corporate legal departments, or Legal Operations teams question whether AI will play a significant role in the future of legal services. The debate has largely shifted from whether AI will matter to how it should be implemented. Yet many organizations find themselves trapped in the equivalent of a three-day chess match. Every risk is analyzed. Every governance policy is debated. Every potential failure scenario is explored. 

Most of those concerns are legitimate. 

The problem is that organizations can become so focused on avoiding mistakes that they never make a move at all. 

The greatest risk for many legal organizations is no longer adopting AI too quickly. It is waiting so long that competitors develop capabilities they cannot easily replicate. 

The chess clock is running. 

The Cost of Waiting 

Many organizations continue to approach AI adoption as a technology selection exercise. They evaluate vendors, compare features, attend demonstrations, and wait for the market to mature. 

This caution is understandable. Legal professionals are trained to identify risk, challenge assumptions, and seek certainty before acting. 

The challenge is that certainty rarely exists when technology is evolving rapidly. 

Organizations experimenting with AI today are learning things that cannot be learned from vendor demonstrations or conference presentations. They are discovering where AI performs exceptionally well, where human judgment still matters, and how the two can work together within a defensible process. 

Like chess players who improve through experience rather than theory, legal teams develop stronger AI capabilities through practical application. 

The organizations creating value from AI are rarely the ones waiting for certainty. They are the ones willing to make informed decisions, learn from the results, and refine their approach over time. 

Why Legal Is Different 

Unlike many industries, legal organizations cannot simply prioritize speed. 

Legal operates in an environment where decisions may be challenged by opposing counsel, scrutinized by regulators, or examined by courts years later. Workflows must remain flexible, but they must also remain defensible. 

This reality often creates a false choice between innovation and caution. 

Legal teams should not seek to eliminate risk entirely before taking action. Nor should they deploy AI without governance and oversight. 

In chess, strong players do not calculate every possible move. They rely on proven principles, preparation, and pattern recognition to make high-quality decisions efficiently. 

The same principle applies to AI adoption. 

Building Position Before Seeking Checkmate 

My grandfather taught me that chess games are rarely won through a single brilliant move. 

Success is the amalgamation of „working the plan“ until the plan no longer works, then adapting. 

Players improve piece coordination. They control important squares. They reduce weaknesses and create options. Over time, those small advantages compound into a stronger position. 

AI adoption follows a similar pattern. 

The organizations likely to succeed will not necessarily be those with access to the most advanced tools. They will be those that build strong positions through investments in people, processes, and technology. 

Success will not come from technology alone. Organizations need professionals who are comfortable using AI, processes that validate outputs, and governance that supports accountability. 

The strongest AI strategies focus less on individual use cases and more on building organizational capability. 

Where AI Is Creating Value Today 

Much of the conversation around AI focuses on what might happen next. The reality is that legal teams are already finding practical ways to create value today. 

Document review provides one of the clearest examples. Generative AI can help prioritize information, summarize large document populations, and accelerate review workflows. Platforms such as Relativity aiR for Review and frameworks like Amplify Review demonstrate how AI can reduce review burden while allowing lawyers to focus on higher-value analysis. 

Beyond review, AI is helping legal teams identify key facts, understand relationships across large datasets, and accelerate investigations. 

Technologies such as aiR for Case Strategy are also beginning to support issue analysis, narrative development, and legal strategy. 

Clients do not hire lawyers to search for information. They hire lawyers to analyze it, apply judgment, assess risk, and make decisions. AI is most valuable when it shifts more time toward those activities. 

The Next Phase: Agentic AI 

While generative AI is currently transforming review, investigations, and legal analysis, many industry observers are already looking toward agentic AI as the next major evolution. 

The opportunity is substantial, which explains why so many organizations are eager to discuss it. 

Agentic systems may eventually coordinate workflows, execute complex multi-step tasks, interact with multiple data sources, and automate broader legal processes. 

What makes agentic AI particularly interesting for legal is the nature of legal work itself. While every matter has unique facts and circumstances, much of legal work is guided by repeatable processes. Investigations, discovery, privilege review, regulatory response, contract analysis, and due diligence often follow established playbooks that break complex work into a series of decisions, validations, and actions. 

Those workflows still require legal judgment, but they also contain significant amounts of administrative and operational work that can be costly, time-consuming, and prone to human error. 

The long-term potential of agentic AI is not replacing lawyers. It is helping legal teams execute those playbooks more consistently, more efficiently, and at greater scale. 

But organizations eager to reach that future must recognize an important reality. 

You cannot skip the opening moves. 

Asking how to operationalize agentic AI before learning how to effectively deploy generative AI is a bit like studying advanced endgame strategy before learning how to properly develop your pieces in the opening. The governance frameworks, validation methodologies, operational discipline, and user confidence required for agentic AI are built through today’s AI and generative AI initiatives. 

Organizations that have not developed their AI muscles will struggle to capitalize on more advanced capabilities when they arrive. 

The path to agentic AI begins with practical adoption today. 

The Next Move Matters 

In tournament chess, players rarely have the luxury of waiting for perfect certainty. They must make the best decision possible with the information available and the time remaining on the clock. 

Legal organizations face a similar challenge. 

The future of legal practice will undoubtedly include AI. The question is not whether firms and legal departments will adopt these technologies. The question is whether they will develop the capabilities, experience, and governance necessary to use them effectively. 

The organizations that succeed will probably look familiar. They will be the ones that started early enough to learn, disciplined enough to establish governance, and practical enough to adapt as the technology matured. 

Because in AI adoption, as in chess, success rarely comes from a single move. 

It comes from having a strategy, developing capability, and recognizing that the clock is always running. 

Ready or not, the game is afoot.  My grandfather also loved Sherlock Holmes.

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About Author

Brian Stempel is a law practice technology executive and thought leader with over 30 years of experience in delivering innovative solutions and services to the legal industry. He is the Head of Customer Advocacy at Lineal where he helps clients solve legal challenges with Lineal’s award-winning Amplify™ platform. Before Lineal, Brian ran eDiscovery operations at Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Hastings, and Debevoise & Plimpton. A life-long learner he also holds executive education certificates from Cornell University, MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia Business School, and Harvard Business School in various fields related to artificial intelligence, innovation, DEI, and leadership. 

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About Lineal 

Lineal is an innovative eDiscovery and legal technology solutions company that empowers law firms and corporations with modern data management and review strategies. Established in 2009, Lineal specializes in comprehensive eDiscovery services, leveraging its proprietary technology suite, Amplify™  to enhance efficiency and accuracy in handling large volumes of electronic data. With a global presence and a team of experienced professionals, Lineal is dedicated to delivering custom-tailored solutions that drive optimal legal outcomes for its clients. For more information, visit lineal.com