Innovation Is More Than AI ft. John Koss

AI is everywhere in legal right now, but John Koss wants law firms to think bigger than the tool and genuinely innovate. In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with John Koss, Chief Innovation and AI Officer at Mintz, to talk about what it actually takes to bring AI into a law firm. John explains why innovation is about people, process, and technology, how Mintz measures AI adoption, why repeatable workflows matter more than scattered experimentation, and why firms need the courage to commit to a strategy instead of chasing every new tool that hits LinkedIn.

AI is not a strategy.

Sure, it’s a powerful tool but still, only one piece of the puzzle.

In this episode of Between the Briefs by Steno, Adrian Cea and Joe Stephens sit down with John Koss, Chief Innovation and AI Officer at Mintz, for a practical conversation on legal AI, innovation strategy, knowledge management, law firm data, legal education, vendor relationships and what it actually takes to make new technology useful inside a law firm.

What You’ll Learn:

Why John sees innovation as much broader than AI
How people, process, and technology shape real law firm change
How Mintz measures early ROI on AI tools through adoption, usage, and engagement
Why usage is only the baseline, not the full ROI story
How experimentation becomes a repeatable “Mintz way” of doing legal work
Why chasing every new AI tool creates scattered results
Why AI adoption has become easier than earlier legal tech shifts like technology-assisted review
What law schools should and should not be expected to teach about AI
Why mentorship and judgment still need to be taught inside firms
Why a single source of truth for firm data is foundational but deeply unglamorous work
What legal tech vendors need to understand before pitching law firms
Why nobody has the future of legal AI fully figured out yet

The big takeaway: AI strategy is not about panic-buying tools. It is about knowing your problems, choosing your path, building the workflow, and bringing people with you.

Highlights:
00:00 Introduction

00:51 John’s Path From Litigation to Legal Tech

02:52 What a Chief Innovation and AI Officer Actually Does

03:03 Why Innovation Is Bigger Than AI

04:24 Moving From Legal Work to Business Strategy

06:01 Measuring AI Adoption and ROI

06:37 Why Usage Is Only the Starting Point

08:34 Turning Experimentation Into Repeatable Workflows

09:45 The Biggest Challenge in AI Adoption

09:59 Why John Avoids Calling Firm Missteps “Mistakes”

12:52 Getting Buy-In From Lawyers

13:46 Why AI Adoption Is Easier Than Earlier Legal Tech Shifts

17:52 How Law Schools Are Responding to AI

18:19 What Law Schools Should Teach About Legal AI

22:01 The Risk of Over-Automating Legal Learning

23:03 Teaching Judgment in the Age of AI

27:49 Building a Single Source of Truth

28:09 Why Firm Data Strategy Is Foundational

31:14 What Legal Tech Vendors Get Right and Wrong

31:53 Why Customer Success Matters After the Sale

36:23 John’s Hot Take: Nobody Has This Fully Figured Out

38:32 Closing Thoughts

Quotes:

“Innovation to me is much broader than just AI.”
“Technology’s one of those three legs of the stool.”
“How do we take experimentation and turn it into something that’s kind of a repeatable workflow or use case?”
“We’re not a bunch of dummies.”
“We are really all in this together.”