The Influencers: Digital Transformation

When Your “CEO” Is a Deepfake: Navigating Cyber Attacks in the Age of AI

In this episode of The Influencers, host Leo von Gerlach sits down with Hogan Lovells partners Joke Bodewits and Paul Otto to explore how AI is reshaping the cyber-attack landscape—strengthening defensive tools while also enabling more convincing phishing, deepfakes, and other sophisticated attacks. They unpack the legal, regulatory, and operational challenges facing global companies, from NIS2 and DORA obligations to ransom decision-making and cross-border data hurdles. Filled with practical insight from front-line advisors, the conversation offers clear guidance for organizations aiming to elevate their cyber readiness in an AI-accelerated environment.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
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AI for In-House Lawyers: How to Scale, Save Time, and Stay in Control with Lucy Tyrrell of Wordsmith AI

In this episode of The Influencers, our host Leo von Gerlach speaks with Lucy Tyrrell, General Counsel at Wordsmith AI, about how AI-native platforms are transforming the daily realities of corporate legal departments. They discuss practical ways in-house teams can automate contract review, manage knowledge, and scale effectively without losing control of risk. Whether you’re a sole GC or leading a large legal team, this conversation offers clear takeaways on integrating AI to work smarter and free up time for more strategic work.
About Wordsmith AI:  Wordsmith AI develops AI tools for legal teams to automate workflows, including pre-financing due diligence, contract risk analysis, and compliance audits. Follow the link: https://wordsmith.ai/
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

Steering through the Global Race for AI Supremacy - Explained by Hogan Lovells Partners Charmian Aw and Mark Brennan

In this episode, Mark Brennan and Charmian Aw join host Leo von Gerlach to explore how clients can navigate the rapidly evolving geopolitical tensions around the development of AI & data technology. The conversation spans the global “AI race,” the balance between innovation and regulation, and how multinational businesses can build smart, scalable compliance strategies amid diverging global frameworks. From Charmian’s “calibrate and enable” approach to Mark’s insights on governance, benchmarking, and policy clarity, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how leading lawyers are helping clients innovate responsibly across jurisdictions.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

Inside Washington’s Crypto Pivot: Senator Kyrsten Sinema in conversation with Global Digital Finance’s Elise Soucie Watts

In this special edition of The Influencers, recorded live at Hogan Lovells’ Digital Assets and Blockchain Summit, Elise Soucie Watts, Executive Director at Global Digital Finance, speaks with Senator Kyrsten Sinema about the dramatic shift in U.S. digital-asset policy under the new administration. Together they explore the transition from regulation-by-enforcement to a coordinated legislative and rulemaking framework anchored by the Genius and Clarity Acts—and what it means for market structure, bipartisan politics, and global alignment. For in-house counsel, this episode offers a rare insider’s view of how Washington is shaping the future of crypto, fintech, and financial-market regulation.
About the Digital Assets Summit:  Every Fall, we gather policymakers and industry leaders to attend our annual summit on digital assets and tokenization, held in partnership with Global Digital Finance, a non-profit whose mission is to promote and underpin the greater adoption of market standards for the use of crypto and digital assets.
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

Inside Meta: How Mixed Signals from Regulators Impact AI and Business

In this episode of The Influencers, Meta’s Ania Helseth joins Hogan Lovells’ Leo von Gerlach to talk candidly about Europe’s fast-moving AI regulatory landscape. From the AI Act to the EU’s code of practice, she explains why a patchwork of rules and signals is making it “really difficult to start launching new products when you don’t really know what rules apply to you.” For in-house lawyers and business leaders, it’s a rare inside view on how regulation is shaping innovation - and what to watch next.
About Meta: Meta Platforms, Inc. is a multinational technology conglomerate known for its social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, and its development of virtual and augmented reality technologies through its Reality Labs segment.
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

AI & American health: What’s changing now?

In this new feature of The Influencers, we turn the spotlight on our own Hogan Lovells partners for the first time. Melissa Bianchi and Cybil Roehrenbeck join Leo von Gerlach to unpack how U.S. federal AI initiatives are reshaping healthcare. They explore the government’s digital health ecosystem, the CMS interoperability framework, and the balance between innovation and privacy. This episode delivers practical insights into both the regulatory hurdles and the business opportunities in the fast-evolving world of AI in healthcare.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

AI Agents & the Future of Legal Work: Lessons from Salesforce with Ed Britan

In this episode of The Influencers, Edward Britan, Senior Vice President at Salesforce, discusses with Hogan Lovells host Leo von Gerlach how AI agents are transforming privacy, governance, and the way legal teams work. He explains how Salesforce builds trust with customers through rigorous AI governance processes, close collaboration with regulators, and a focus on high-quality data. For in-house counsel, Britan offers practical insights on establishing guardrails, integrating AI into compliance programs, and preparing teams for a future where human judgment and AI capabilities work hand-in-hand.
 
About Salesforce:  Salesforce is the leading AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together with AI, data, and Customer 360 apps on one unified platform.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

Governing Digital Transformation: Lessons from the UK House of Lords with Lord Kulveer Ranger

In this episode of The Influencers, Lord Kulveer Ranger, member of the UK House of Lords offers advice for leaders in government and business to navigate the accelerating pace of digital transformation. In conversation with Hogan Lovells host Leo von Gerlach, he shares lessons on how legal teams can collaborate more effectively with technologists, avoid common pitfalls in tech-driven change, and ensure innovation benefits the whole organization—not just a select few. For anyone facing complex decisions around tech adoption, governance, and risk, this is a must-listen.
About Lord Ranger:  Lord Kulveer Ranger is a technology and transport visionary, who has worked, advised, invested and led across the digital ecosystem of startups & scale ups, policy and trade bodies, government and global firms. He is a member of the House of Lord and an expert in strategic communications. Learn more at https://www.kulveerranger.com/
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
A special note: our influencers are taking some downtime this summer, so we are too. The Influencers will return 3 September 2025 for our fourth season of conversations with some of the most interesting and compelling voices working at the intersection of law, business, and technology.
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

From Hype to Value: Making AI Work in the Real Economy with Christian Temath, KI.NRW

In this episode of The Influencers, Christian Temath, Managing Director of KI.NRW, explores how businesses and legal advisors can move from AI curiosity to concrete application. From practical use cases like AI-enabled ovens to broader conversations about regulatory uncertainty and Europe’s technological sovereignty, Temath offers a grounded, forward-looking view on applied AI. His insights reveal what it takes to turn AI ambition into impact—even for organizations just beginning their digital transformation journey.
 
About KI.NRW:  KI.NRW is a competence platform and main networking initiative for artificial intelligence (AI) in North Rhine-Westphalia in Western Germany. It aims to position the region as a leading hub for applied AI by fostering collaboration between research institutions and industry players.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!

Judgment in the Cloud: The Future of Risk and Regulation with James Lord, Google Cloud

In this third episode wrapping up our insurance-focused miniseries of The Influencers, Hogan Lovells host Karishma Paroha and Tom Hughes of the International Underwriting Association dive into the business-critical role of cloud technology with James Lord, Head of Insurance, Legal and Financial Services at Google Cloud UK & Ireland. Together, they explore how the cloud is reshaping the insurance and legal sectors by enabling hyper-personalized services, faster claims and legal processes, and stronger security and resilience. They also discuss the ethical and regulatory challenges of AI in the cloud as Lord explains how companies can drive meaningful innovation by embracing a “CAARMA” mindset: Change agents, Appetite, Ambition, Risk, Mindset, and Action.
 
About Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
 
About the International Underwriting Association of London: The International Underwriting Association of London is the representative body for companies in London providing international and wholesale insurance and reinsurance coverage, whose mission is to secure an optimal trading environment for insurance companies.
 
About Hogan Lovells: Our Digital Transformation offering helps clients navigate the full breadth and depth of the seismic forces impacting their organizations – and today’s society. Leveraging team members across our 2800 lawyers on six continents, we provide integrated advice on the multifaceted regulatory, governance and enforcement issues and risks that arise across the many technologies and trends that comprise the new digital future.
 
If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to rate and review us. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue bringing insightful conversations on digital transformation and law. Thank you for your support!