After more than two decades building technology platforms across industries, I've learned that the most critical inflection points in a company's journey aren't marked by funding rounds or product launches. They're marked by decisions about people, specifically, bringing the right leaders on board at exactly the right time.
Today, I want to share why we made the strategic decision to create a Chief AI Officer role at Leah (formerly ContractPodAi), and why James Thomas was the perfect person to fill it.
At Leah, we've been innovators in AI for years. Our Leah Legal solution, launched in 2023, has garnered thousands of users globally, and we've established partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic to build what we believe is the most advanced agentic AI platform for enterprises.
We've seen the impact firsthand. Recent deployments demonstrate substantial results across leading enterprises:
The Chief AI Officer role represents our commitment to scaling this innovation responsibly while maintaining the security, governance, and explainability standards that enterprise departments require.
In my dual role as President and CTO, I don't see a separation between technical innovation and business outcomes - they're two sides of the same equation. Yes, I could tell you about our technical infrastructure, our compute capabilities, our model training initiatives. But what matters most is ensuring that power translates into measurable business impact for our customers. That's where technology and business strategy become inseparable.
This requires someone who can operate at the intersection of three critical domains:
In today's fast-evolving AI landscape, where models like GPT-5 and beyond are pushing boundaries, we need leadership that anticipates regulatory shifts, such as the EU AI Act or emerging U.S. guidelines on AI ethics. Without this foresight, companies risk deploying solutions that are innovative but non-compliant, leading to costly rework or reputational damage.
James Thomas brings a distinctive combination of technical depth, legal domain expertise, and proven enterprise deployment experience. His career trajectory demonstrates the rare ability to operate effectively across engineering, law, and executive leadership.
Professional Background:
Proven Innovation Velocity:
At KPMG, James designed, built, and deployed comprehensive GenAI solutions at unprecedented speed. His team developed a production-ready GPT-4-powered document analysis system in under five hours, complete with secure Azure architecture, chat functionality, and source attribution capabilities. This demonstrates not merely technical competence, but the practical execution capabilities required to deliver enterprise value rapidly. Beyond speed, James has scaled similar systems to handle millions of documents, ensuring robustness under real-world loads.
Strategic Partnerships:
James established and managed global technology alliances with Microsoft, ServiceNow, and Thomson Reuters, demonstrating expertise in leveraging ecosystem partnerships to accelerate innovation and market reach. These collaborations have resulted in co-developed tools that integrate AI with existing workflows, reducing adoption barriers for enterprises.
James's appointment strengthens Leah’s leadership team and positions the organization for accelerated growth across several strategic dimensions:
James will work directly with Tanja Podinic, our Chief Innovation Officer, and Umang Jain, our EVP of Technology & Product Management, alongside our engineering teams to ensure seamless alignment between AI capabilities and customer needs. Tanja joined us just over a year ago and has been instrumental in shaping our product vision. With over a decade as a practicing lawyer and deep AI expertise from her role as Global Legal Generative AI Lead at PwC, she brings a unique perspective that bridges legal practice and technology. Her transformative contributions led to her recent promotion to Chief Innovation Officer, ensuring our solutions deliver practical business value, not just technological possibility.
Umang brings over 27 years of experience scaling global platforms and building AI-powered products. Most recently as VP of Product, Platform, and Partnerships at Gupshup, he scaled platforms 4x to over $350M and introduced new conversational AI solutions. A Berkeley MBA and IIT Delhi graduate, Umang's track record of leading multi-billion-dollar digital transformations and launching AI/ML products makes him invaluable in translating innovation into measurable client value.
With extensive experience implementing AI solutions across regulated industries, James brings essential expertise in governance frameworks, security protocols, and compliance requirements that enable confident enterprise adoption. This includes implementing multi-layered data encryption and audit trails to meet standards like GDPR and SOC 2.
Customer-Centric Innovation:
James's decade of direct engagement with legal teams provides invaluable insight into workflow challenges, pain points, and value drivers. This perspective ensures our AI development remains grounded in real-world legal operations rather than theoretical capabilities.
James's recognition as a leading legal technologist and his established relationships across the legal technology ecosystem strengthen Leah's position as the definitive voice in responsible AI deployment for legal operations.
Looking ahead, the legal industry is on the cusp of even more profound changes. We're seeing the rise of multimodal AI that combines text, image, and data analysis for tasks like contract visualization and predictive litigation outcomes. James's role will be pivotal in guiding Leah through these trends, ensuring we integrate emerging technologies like edge AI for on-premises deployments in highly regulated environments. Moreover, as AI agents become more autonomous, we'll focus on ethical frameworks to prevent biases in areas like contract negotiation or dispute resolution, drawing on James's experience to set industry benchmarks.
What Does It Mean to Set the Standard for Enterprise AI?
The creation of the Chief AI Officer role reflects our commitment to responsible innovation leadership. As AI capabilities advance rapidly, the enterprises require trusted partners who understand both the transformative potential and the critical importance of governance, security, and explainability.
Leah's expanded leadership team positions the organization to:
Our customers can expect even tighter integration between AI capabilities and business outcomes. We're moving beyond task automation to genuine agentic AI that can handle complex scenarios with the kind of judgment and context-awareness that drives real business value.
And for our team, having James's leadership means we can innovate faster while maintaining the rigorous standards that enterprise teams demand.
We're at a pivotal moment. I'm grateful to have James helping us navigate it responsibly, effectively, and with the kind of impact that truly matters. As we look to the future, Leah is poised not just to participate in the AI revolution, but to define it, ensuring that enterprises worldwide can harness AI's power without compromising on ethics or efficacy. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible.
