5 AI Guardrails COOs Need to Put in Place Today with Sharon Toerek

AI is moving fast in professional services firms. 

And while most conversations focus on efficiency gains and new tools, the harder questions are around risk – ownership, liability, and what happens when AI use goes wrong.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra is joined by Sharon Toerek, a leading expert on IP and legal risk in the creative and consulting space, to unpack what AI really changes for operations leaders – and what needs to be in place to protect your business

Here’s what they dive into:

📄 What actually happens to IP when work is human-created, AI-assisted, or fully AI-generated
🔐 The data privacy risks agencies and consultancies often underestimate
🧭 Sharon’s five-step framework for building an AI-ready workplace
📝 How contracts, policies, and client conversations need to evolve as AI becomes operational

If you’re an ops leader trying to balance innovation with risk, this episode is a practical reminder that AI governance isn’t a legal edge case anymore – it’s part of running a mature, well-managed operation.

Additional Resources:
👉🏽 Follow Sharon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharontoerek/ 
🌐 Check out Sharon’s website: https://legalandcreative.com/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you.