How AI is reshaping the GC role: IBM's Anne Robinson on running a global legal Empire in the age of AI

Anne E Robinson, Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer of IBM, was recently in Delhi to attend the AI Summit.

During her visit, Robinson spoke to Bar & Bench's Pallavi Saluja about the legal team at IBM, how the team leverages AI, the effect of AI on in-house lawyers and more.

Edited excerpts follow.

Pallavi Saluja (PS): You are in Delhi to attend the AI Summit - how was your experience?

Anne E Robinson (AR): The India AI Impact Summit 2026 has been energising and purposeful. There is a real sense of urgency and excitement about what we must build for tomorrow and the capabilities we need to develop today. The discussions were rich and wide‑ranging - spanning the roles of developers and deployers, accountability, and what responsible, secure, inclusive and economically transformative AI should look like across the entire value chain. What stood out was the depth of engagement across government, clients, industry and partners.

The summit succeeded in creating meaningful engagement. Some may comment about traffic challenges, but what I saw was the opposite - strong participation, real dialogue and the right people in the room. I believe opening the event for broad participation was a differentiator since more participation creates better engagement, which helps build a stronger foundation for the future.

We are helping build that foundation. At IBM, our commitment is to skill 5 million Indian learners in AI, cybersecurity and quantum technologies by 2030. This reflects our belief that India’s talent pipeline will determine the pace and quality of global AI adoption.

PS: As Chief Legal Officer, how do you deal with the complexities of managing a large global organisation spread across multiple jurisdictions?

AR: I consider myself a businessperson who just happens to be a lawyer. I partner with my CEO on his business objectives and bring the Legal and Regulatory Affairs (LRA) organisation along with that mission.

A core part of my effort has been the transformation of our LRA team and using technology effectively. We strive to be “client zero” for IBM’s own tools and align the department’s design to IBM’s strategic priorities. That means structuring the organisation intentionally and incentivising the team to act accordingly. A core focus is deep engagement with business leaders, understanding the business first and then building forward‑looking, practical, business‑aligned solutions.

Managing a global department means balancing two forms of complexity: the pace of technological change and the variation in global regulatory frameworks. Our role is to turn this complexity into clarity by translating evolving geopolitical, privacy, cyber, AI and commercial regulations into actionable guidance. Despite jurisdictional differences, there is always a common denominator and our team partners with the business to find it and build scalable solutions around it.

I rely on strong cross‑functional governance. I am fortunate to have a very capable global team. I believe in open communication, radical candour, empowerment and ensure that my leaders have agency to execute, because that is how we move quickly and solve problems at scale.

PS: What is the strength of the legal team at IBM across countries and how is the team structured?

AR: At IBM, we operate as a global, unified LRA division with teams across every region where IBM does business. Our hybrid structure blends centralised expertise in corporate, regulatory, compliance, AI governance and public policy, with embedded legal partners aligned to business units.

This ensures we are involved early, not after the fact, and positions us as a strategic enabler of growth rather than merely a risk gatekeeper.

PS: IBM uses technology to select and manage outside counsel. Could you give us some insight on how it works and how it has transformed the work of the legal department?

AR: Use of technology is part of our broader effort to bring discipline, transparency and data‑driven decision‑making to outside counsel management. It helps us match the right firm to the right matter at the right price.

Our philosophy centers on productivity, which we define across three levers: internal headcount, outside counsel and third-party providers. Technology enhances performance across all three, giving us visibility and control over total legal spend.

Presently, there is a gap between law firms’ adoption of technology and the value being passed down to clients. Over time, firms will need to pass down the value of efficiency and time‑saving to clients and, in turn, bring value to the work that clients truly need to drive impact.

We are investing significantly in legal operations and technology to ensure seamless collaboration across geographies and to accelerate decision-making. We also use technology strategically. We aim to be ‘client zero’ for IBM’s own tools, aligning the department’s design to our strategic priorities.

PS: What other technological tools is the team using?

AR: At IBM, we use a hybrid AI stack. This includes AI we build internally, AI deployed through enterprise tools and AI from trusted partners. We use AI as an example for contract acceleration such as NDAs, clause analytics and early-stage drafting. We use internal Ask engines for policy discovery. We also deploy AI for summaries, invoice review, reporting automation and compliance support.

We apply risk tiering. Low and medium risk use cases scale fastest, while higher risk applications operate under stricter governance.

PS: Do you see AI making entry‑level in‑house counsel jobs redundant?

AR: AI will reshape these roles and not eliminate them. When I began my career, junior lawyers spent significant time on tasks that did little to help me be a better lawyer. AI can handle those tasks, enabling young lawyers to engage much earlier in substantive matters.

As AI assumes repetitive and time intensive tasks, it creates space for early career lawyers to engage sooner in higher order thinking. They will spend less time on mechanical activities and more time building judgment, commercial acumen and cross functional fluency from the outset of their careers.

The lawyers who will excel are those who will embrace AI as a collaborator that enhances their capability and accelerates their professional growth. Technology is not reducing opportunities. It is enhancing them and is allowing value creation to happen faster.

PS: How important is India in IBM’s global operations and growth agenda?

AR: India is central to IBM’s global strategy. It is one of our largest talent hubs globally - spanning engineering, AI, data, security, consulting and product development.

As we accelerate hybrid cloud and AI adoption worldwide, India’s scale, skills and innovation depth make it indispensable to IBM’s growth trajectory.

PS: India hosts one of largest pools of legal and compliance talent. How do you see their role evolving?

AR: India’s legal and compliance teams are already deeply embedded in global workflows. Going forward, they will play an even larger role in scaling AI-enabled legal processes, leading policy standardisation across global operations and supporting contract velocity, regulatory insight and data governance.

PS: How easy or difficult has it been to do business in India? How does it compare to other countries and what needs to change?

AR: India has made significant progress in digitalisation, transparency and regulatory modernisation.

Like any major jurisdiction, it comes with complexity, particularly in areas such as data, tax and sector specific regulation. Greater regulatory predictability, faster alignment across states and continued clarity around emerging technology frameworks would further strengthen the environment.

The overall direction is positive and continued modernisation will attract even more global investment.

PS: Can you talk about the mandate of the Legal Centre of Excellence in enabling IBM's global legal transformation?

AR: The Legal Centre of Excellence is designed to be a force multiplier for IBM’s global legal transformation. We have teams in Bengaluru and Delhi and we are bringing them together as one team with a shared mandate. This is about integrating capabilities, deepening collaboration and ensuring we operate as a unified function that supports IBM. The team is embedded in our workflows, collaborating across regions to support velocity. The team drives consistency, quality and transparency; and serves as the hub for legal operations, metrics and continuous improvement. We have deep respect for the capabilities and expertise that exist here in India.

PS: What is the role of your Government & Regulatory Affairs (GRA) team? Does it draft regulations?

AR: Our Regulatory Affairs team does not draft regulations. What we do is engage constructively and transparently with policymakers around the world. Our GRA team understands regulatory priorities, provides industry insights and ensure that IBM’s perspective contributes meaningfully to those discussions.

Our legal professionals keep track of the regulatory trends and work closely with product and engineering teams to ensure that IBM’s offerings meet evolving regulatory expectations. A good example is the ongoing global conversation around sovereignty. IBM has introduced Sovereign Core, which offer clients choice and control over where their data resides, who holds the keys, how workloads are managed and who has access. This is the kind of regulatory‑aligned innovation our teams help shape.

IBM Sovereign Core is an AI-ready sovereign stack designed for flexibility, compliance and control. Hybrid and sovereign by design, it is the industry’s first AI-ready sovereign-enabled software for enterprises, governments and service providers to build, deploy and manage AI-ready sovereign environments.

PS: How has the role of an in-house lawyer evolved, and what new challenges do global GCs face?

AR: In today’s times, in-house counsel cannot be reactive or simply interpret laws – those days are over. Within our team, we urge our professionals to focus on strategic risks, understanding the business landscape and have a point of view. The role of an in-house lawyer is much bigger now and has evolved from legal technician to enterprise strategist.

Today’s General Counsel (GC) must understand technology deeply, especially AI and data. The role involves shaping strategies, risk appetite, organisational culture, governance and engaging with regulators, boards and customers on issues that define corporate trust.

PS: What skills must the next generation of in‑house lawyers develop?

AR: As the legal function integrates more deeply with technology and business strategy, expectations are expanding. The skills which need to be developed are:

1. Insatiable curiosity - the willingness to explore areas that did not exist yesterday

2. Building trust early - business must trust its lawyers; today that trust must be earned much earlier.

3. Strong communication - because bringing insights from the market requires clarity, influence and impact.

4. AI literacy - understand how it works, where the risks lie and how to govern it.

5. Commercial acumen - seeing the business holistically, not just isolated legal issues. Understanding how legal advice connects to strategy and growth.

6. Cross functional fluency - being able to collaborate across disciplines and translate legal guidance into practical action.

7. Adaptability and Agility - staying agile as technology and regulation continue to evolve.