2026 GC AI Summit Recap

We loved having you for Summit this year! We laughed, we reflected, and we strengthened our collective conviction that in-house legal in an AI world is a place we want to be. So many stories of AI adoption, practical tips, and how AI helps make us the strategic partners that our companies need. Let's go!

In case you missed it, highlights by session below. Yes, Ashton knows AI, well. Yes, the CLOs for 2025's hottest IPOs were there and yes their insights were grand. And yes, GC AI is launching Playbooks.

On January 22, 2026 in San Francisco, the first-ever GC AI Summit brought together senior legal leaders, operators, and AI experts for a full day of strategic insight, practical frameworks, and discussion on what's next for in-house legal.

2026 Summit Highlights

1. Keynote: GC AI Co-Founder & CEO Cecilia Ziniti explained (1) in-house is ahead on AI adoption with 94% using AI weekly versus less than 50% of outside lawyers, (2) AI increases legal's value like weightlifting changed Michael Jordan and basketball, and (3) we have new power to manifest our advice. Welcome to "vibe lawyering", where the programming language is English. Join in the tears of joy at the stories of getting deals done in time to put kiddos to bed and saving $100K+ on state-by-state regulatory analysis. Watch Cecilia's keynote here.

2. Investor Ashton Kutcher (yes!) told us AI gives us Iron Man suits. In other words, if you go into a fight with someone wearing an Iron Man suit and you refuse to wear it, you'll lose. Kutcher also warned about "Stupid Mountain" from Adam Grant's book - that folks who use generalist AI tools to do some basic legal tasks will know just enough to be dangerous, making domain-specific legal and in-house expertise like you have and specialized tools like GC AI more valuable than ever.

3. Legal Team of the Future: Spotlight on Zscaler CLO Robert Schlossman and Legal Ops Director Amanda Cincotta showed us great AI adoption up close. They failed fast with their first AI tool, then ran a 90-day GC AI pilot where demand for licenses far exceeded expectations. Amanda shared how she used GC AI to negotiate a 20% discount from a law firm (when another AI tool suggested only 12-15%). Robert said, "I didn't come into AI expecting to see direct business outcomes. I thought it would be incremental at best. What surprised me was how quickly it started driving real results for the business once we put it into actual legal workflows." His favorite use case was an M&A deal, and how excited his employment counsel are. Watch this session here.

4. The Effective Executive in the Age of AI: Dennis Adsit, Ph.D., Adsum Insights Dennis Adsit presented his four pillars of executive leadership: set strategy, execute effectively, build great teams, and manage yourself. He explained AI is "the largest simultaneous cross-company behavior, process, culture, and technology change the world has ever seen." Adsit's key insights: the most important leadership skill is building high-performing teams, and leaders must develop a "generosity gene" to delight in others' success.

5. Brand, Risk & Speed: GCs Behind Culture-Defining Consumer Brands Brittara Blaine (Liquid Death), Sophia Contreras Schwartz (Nextdoor), and Cameron Clark (Arc'teryx) discussed how their legal teams move at the speed of culture. Brittara shared reviewing TV commercials featuring chainsaw-wielding murdering clowns in three hours, and Sophia explained how being deeply integrated with the product lets her team make fast decisions. All three cited GC AI as their biggest productivity improvement, though they flagged AI tool proliferation and meeting transcription overload (!) as new challenges.

6. Under NDA (Secret Product Session): Cecilia and GC AI Solutions Attorney Taylor Robertson demoed GC AI's evolution from chat tool to agentic platform - showing playbooks that automatically review contracts against negotiation positions, flag harmful clauses not even in your playbook, and apply redlines in minutes. The Slack integration demo showed how a lawyer's judgment can answer business questions even while on vacation - "your intern, your Anne Hathaway, can stand in for you."

7. M&A Greatness: Larry Chu, Partner & Co-Chair of Global M&A, Goodwin Larry explained that AI is reshaping M&A by accelerating acqui-hires and "halo transactions" where the real value is people and collective know-how, not just technology or IP. He predicted a "K-shaped" M&A market - smaller deals will become more standardized and efficient with AI, while complex strategic transactions will require even more creativity and human judgment.

8. Legal AI: Best of the Best: Lindsay Smith, Solutions Attorney, GC AI Lindsay showcased five practical AI applications from actual GC AI users, including a trademark knockout search prompt that instantly flags risky product names, a defamation risk analyzer for publishers, and a terms of service change management workflow. Her personal favorite: a prompt that extracts all non-legal action items from a marked-up contract and drafts the email to business stakeholders, saving the tedious work of manually translating legal comments into plain English.

9. AI, Strategy, and the Boardroom Agenda Jeremy Siegel (Amerit Fleet Solutions) moderated VCs Rory O'Driscoll, Jeremy Kaufmann (Scale Venture Partners), and Brianne Kimmel (Worklife Ventures), who explained that AI adoption is no longer strategic - it's table stakes for operational parity. Brianne noted that GCs are "the new CTOs" because they must understand every technology, its legal risks, and what information flows into AI platforms - making early in-house counsel hires more critical than ever.

10. The Regulatory Road Ahead: What Policymakers Are Planning for AI Sharon Johnson (MODE Global), Stephen Sherrill (SF Board of Supervisors), Melody Drummond Hansen (former FMCSA Chief Counsel), and Michael A. Jacobs (ex-Morrison & Foerster) discussed how AI regulation will often show up through existing industry frameworks, with AI amplifying issues in already regulated areas. Michael highlighted California's AB 360, a new state law now in effect that prevents companies deploying AI from arguing the AI acted independently as a defense, and he contrasted that approach with the Section 230 immunity framework from the early internet era. He also suggested the near-term trend may be more state laws like California's than an immediate federal consensus.

11. Legal & the Journey to IPO: Excellence at Every Stage Amber Illig (The Council) moderated Ben Lee (CLO, Reddit), Brendan Mulligan (GC, Figma), and Hanna Steinbach (Harness), who shared that the hardest part of IPO prep is evolving how leadership communicates. For example, what works with VC investors may not work for public markets investors. Ben's key advice: do mock earnings calls early - Reddit did several during a quiet period that was supposed to last two months and lasted two years. Brendan emphasized that legal's highest value comes from being the calm, steady presence during crises. Hanna made the point that the best IPO prep is having a great business!

12. Hot Takes & Hard Truths: GCs on AI and the Future of In-House Diane Honda (Former Redis), Ali Hartley (Simple Practice), Mike Bzozowski (HarperCollins Publishers), and Ryan Loh (Zip) discussed what's working with AI. Ryan's team created a vendor security review agent that cut a five-day process down dramatically, leading senior attorneys to say "this is different" now. The panel agreed that AI should be treated as a practice area, and that legal teams who don't adopt AI will be bypassed by product teams who will "just go without you and do what they want."

Summit Attendee Snapshot

150+ Legal VP, General Counsel, Chief Legal Officers, and Deputy Counsel made up a majority of those in the room leading AI for their respective organizations.

Attendees represented organizations across software, venture capital, private equity, research, financial services, and retail organizations.

Want to join a future GC AI Summit or legal AI event? Join the invite list and we'll make sure you're included.