Gilbert + Tobin, a leading Australian corporate law firm, has introduced generative AI into its operational processes while maintaining professional judgment and strict data handling standards. The rollout combined visible executive support, role-specific enablement, and clear governance and administrative controls.
Products and scope of deployment
The firm first deployed ChatGPT Enterprise within operations teams to test practical use cases in a controlled environment. From there, usage extended to marketing, business development, recruitment, finance, technology, business transformation and parts of the legal practice. The firm also uses Codex to move beyond single-task assistance to completing defined, multistep operational workflows.
Executive sponsorship and tailored training
CEO Sam Nickless actively promoted the technology, sharing examples from his own work and framing AI as “not cheating” but as an additional tool for applying professional judgment. Senior leaders’ active involvement helped legitimise adoption across the firm. Rather than relying on general training, the business transformation team joined individual team meetings to demonstrate workflows tailored to specific functions (marketing, finance, recruitment, operations, etc.). Internal videos, showcases and use-case stories helped staff keep pace as ChatGPT’s capabilities evolved.
Adoption, data residency and controls
The firm did not set mandatory usage targets; it demonstrated capabilities while keeping employees accountable for outcomes. As of June 2026, 87% of enabled seats were active — more than twice the adoption rate Gilbert + Tobin typically sees for other tools.
Because the firm handles confidential client and business information with varied client requirements, the AI rollout was supported by explicit guidance on approved tasks, permissible inputs and how outputs should be reviewed. The firm reviewed contractual protections, role-based access, data-processing obligations and administrative controls. Moving to an OpenAI environment with Australian data residency increased confidence to broaden access while meeting internal and client requirements.
Measurable time savings and operational use cases
- Recruitment: one research and data-extraction task was reduced from about four hours to roughly 20 minutes. A separate reference-processing workflow saves an estimated 25 minutes per candidate, beneficial when managing high recruitment volumes.
- Marketing and business development: the firm produces 400–500 pitches per year; ChatGPT helps synthesize prior materials and tailor responses, speeding content preparation and improving alignment with the firm’s writing standards.
- Finance: teams use ChatGPT for spreadsheet and data-analysis tasks.
- Technology: teams apply ChatGPT to documentation, scripts, training materials and internal guidance.
- Audit and file work (Codex): Codex prepared audit reports covering 300 entities, avoiding a full day of manual work across the workflow. It also checked and renamed 1,100 files for upload into another system, replacing work that previously would have taken days.
- Compliance checks: Codex-supported workflows perform research and processing for selected conflict, anti-money-laundering (AML), politically exposed person (PEP) and know-your-customer (KYC) checks, then produce a report for human review and sign-off. Selected checks that previously took three to eight hours can now be completed in minutes.
Other applications and future ambition
Lawyers use ChatGPT for the operational aspects of their work, while legal-specific workflows run on approved platforms such as the AI-powered Harvey platform. One notable use is a custom GPT built from approved examples of Sam Nickless’ writing, priorities and context; it acts as a ‘digital twin’ to help executives pressure-test ideas without making decisions or speaking for the CEO.
Within technology, a DevOps team member used Codex to build a monitoring “watchtower” for the firm’s AWS environment, consolidating operational signals, supporting diagnosis and remediation, and escalating issues that require human attention.
Gilbert + Tobin plans to extend access to ChatGPT Work and Codex as it implements the necessary controls for broader use. Its longer-term ambition is an interconnected working environment where employees can access approved organisational context via ChatGPT, carry out operational tasks, and deliver finished outputs without manually navigating between systems.
Conclusion
Gilbert + Tobin’s approach shows that integrating generative AI into a law firm’s operations can deliver significant time savings across multiple functions when supported by executive leadership, targeted enablement and robust governance, while preserving human review and professional accountability.
