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New York cohort model and JT AI product aim to make AI usable and secure for legal aid

Conference session: Strategy to action — building AI capacity in legal aid · February 3, 2026

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Summary

Just Tech and New York grantees described CITAP security cohorts, AI University (72 participating organizations), hands-on labs and a JT AI knowledge-hub product that creates internal/external searchable AI answers for staff and public-facing sites; presenters emphasized security, shared licenses and hands-on training.

Ellen Samuel, chief operating officer at Just Tech, described New York’s work to prepare legal-aid organizations for AI. Samuel framed the work around security-first cohorts, a broad AI University education cohort and practical, hands-on labs where grantees received licenses and guided exercises.

Samuel said the Cybersecurity and Technology Advancement Project (CITAP) first uplifted grantees to a minimal security baseline before expanding into AI education. AI University attracted 72 organizations and combined monthly expert discussions, demonstrations (including vendor conversations with Microsoft) and hands-on labs. The program’s first session was titled "Don't be Afraid," reflecting an explicit emphasis on addressing fear and misinformation about AI.

To accelerate adoption at scale, Just Tech used cohort structures and shared-license arrangements to reduce costs and supported "flash AI" one-day intensive trainings for entire staffs. Samuel also introduced JT AI, a product that builds semantically structured knowledge hubs from existing documents and deploys AI agents to answer questions for staff or the public (not legal advice). She said JT AI is already deployed with early adopters in New York, Texas and Wisconsin.

Samuel emphasized practical change management: get leadership aligned, create guardrails, and pair AI with human navigators for client-facing workflows. She encouraged organizations struggling with infrastructure to seek funder support for security upgrades and said cohort-based shared resources improve efficiency and sustainability.