By Julie Bays

Lawyers who are exploring generative AI may feel like they finally learned what a “prompt” is, only to hear that prompts are being replaced by skills, agents, workflows, Gems, custom GPTs, Projects and Copilots.

That is a lot to keep up with.

Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the North Carolina Bar Association Center for Practice Management, recently wrote a helpful article titled “Prompts are Dead, Long Live Prompts.” Her point is not that prompts are useless. Instead, she explains that prompts are still useful for one-time tasks, but AI tools are increasingly moving toward reusable instructions, repeatable processes and agent-style tools that can carry out more complex work.

That distinction matters for lawyers.

A prompt may help you summarize a transcript, draft a first version of a client email or brainstorm issues in a document. But when a lawyer or law firm performs the same task repeatedly, such as reviewing a certain kind of contract, preparing an intake follow-up or organizing documents, a saved instruction, skill or workflow may produce more consistent results. Catherine also notes that agents and workflows can be powerful, but they raise important questions about supervision, confidentiality, access controls and verification.

This is exactly why basic AI education for lawyers is so important right now. The terminology is changing quickly, and various products use different names for similar concepts. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft 365 Copilot may each describe these features differently. Legal-specific products may use still another vocabulary. Lawyers do not need to memorize every product label, but they do need to understand the basic concepts well enough to make sound decisions.

At the OBA Midyear Conference, I will be teaching “AI Tools for Today’s Lawyer: A Beginner’s Guide” on Thursday, June 18, at 1:00 p.m. The session is designed for lawyers who want a practical starting point, including what today’s AI tools can do, what the common terminology means and how to begin thinking about where these tools might fit into a legal workflow.

AI can assist with drafting, summarizing, organizing information and identifying patterns. But legal judgment, client confidentiality, verification and professional supervision remain the lawyer’s responsibility. Understanding the difference between a prompt, a reusable skill, an agent and a workflow helps lawyers make better choices about when to use these tools and when to slow down.

The goal is not to chase every new AI term or product. The goal is to understand enough to ask better questions, select better tools and protect clients while improving the quality and efficiency of legal services.

If you attend the OBA Midyear Conference, this beginner-focused AI session will help build a foundation for understanding the rapidly changing AI landscape and considering how these tools may fit into your practice.