In coming five to ten years, the role of general counsel in Thailand is expected to change significantly in terms of compliance, business trends, technologies. For instance, Thailand has enacted Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and the privacy and data will continue to be crucial in the future. Environmental compliance is also expected to be stringent with the implementation of ESG report and not only legal insights but also technology and business strategy insights may play an essential role in leading the legal team. The regional competition for attracting foreign investment may be more challenging. Overall, the general counsel is expected to lead the team for resilience and prompt action with competencies and power decentralising.

Are the effects of AI on the legal world overplayed, or underplayed?

In my opinion, the role of AI on the legal world plays a vital role because all in-house legal teams these days are scouting legal related AI which might fit to use utmost on their daily tasks and approaching AI tech companies to achieve the right tool and learning AI not to be left behind in the fast-paced technical environment. As there is no “one-size-fits-all” AI tool to cover all legal work, the roles of in-house counsels will still be demanding for the market to do actual legal negotiations and professions. Hence, at this stage, the effects of AI on the legal world are somewhat underplayed compared to the concerns about legal jobs replacement, yet it is definitely required to keep a close eye on its growth.