Recognition honors an AI training program that has helped 4,000 lawyers build practical legal AI capability
NEW YORK, MARCH 17, 2026 — Factor’s Sensemaker Academy has been named Winner for Best Tech Training Program at the 2026 Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards. The recognition honors technology-enabled training that helps legal organizations advance workforce development and professional capability.
Sensemaker Academy is Factor’s facilitator-led AI training program for legal teams. Delivered through an AI-enabled learning platform, it helps lawyers build the confidence, judgment, and practical skills needed to apply generative AI to substantive legal work.
The recognition comes as legal organizations shift from AI access to AI capability. Early findings from Factor’s upcoming 2026 GenAI in Legal Benchmarking Report suggest that while AI access is now widespread, ineffective training and lack of trust in AI are major barriers to adoption, preventing legal teams from turning access into consistent, measurable outcomes.
That gap was also highlighted recently in Bloomberg Law by Factor’s Alex Denniston and legal tech and AI consultant Peter Duffy. Drawing on lessons from training thousands of lawyers through the Sensemaker program, the authors found that legal teams build AI fluency fastest when learning is grounded in concrete legal tasks, practical verification, and a clear understanding of AI’s limits.
4,000+ legal professionals across more than 40 organizations have completed Sensemaker Academy, including teams at Akin, Atlassian, HSBC, Meta, Nasdaq, and Workday. The curriculum was developed in collaboration with The Sense Collective, Factor’s award-winning community of legal leaders focused on AI strategy and execution, to ensure the program reflects the realities of legal work today.
“Sensemaker Academy helped make AI feel practical for our lawyers because the training was grounded in legal tasks tailored to their area of practice. That made it easier for teams to connect the learning to their own work, apply their new AI skills across the many tools available to them, and support our broader goal of becoming a more AI-native law department,” said Mike Haven, Global Head of Legal Operations at Meta.
“This recognition reflects what legal teams are telling us clearly: they need AI upskilling, but they don’t want generic technology training that feels disconnected from their work,” said Chris DeConti, Chief Strategy Officer at Factor. “Sensemaker was designed to make AI learning relevant, engaging, and practical by tailoring each participant’s experience to the legal work they actually do and the level of AI fluency they bring. With 90% of participants saying they would recommend the program to a colleague, we believe that approach is working.”
Unlike many AI training programs, Sensemaker Academy is tool- and platform-agnostic and designed for participants with varying levels of AI fluency, providing a strong foundation for AI novices and a path to acceleration for those with more AI experience.
Legal departments and law firms interested in building AI fluency at scale can learn more about Sensemaker Academy here.