If a legal question comes up in your business, asking an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude, can be a useful place to start.
AI is particularly helpful when you're trying to get your bearings, whether that’s helping you understand unfamiliar terminology, organising a complicated set of facts or working out what questions you need to ask to move forward. It can also help you decide whether you need to speak to a lawyer, and help you prepare for that conversation.
The point to be more careful is when you move from using AI to understand an issue to relying on its answer to make a business decision with legal, financial or reputational consequences. If an AI answer has left you unsure what to do next, our commercial solicitors can help you sense-check the position and work through your options.
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Where does relying on AI become risky?
Legal questions are often highly dependent on context.
A small difference in the wording of a contract, the sequence of events, the status of an individual, the jurisdiction involved or something you have already said or agreed, even a detail that seems insignificant, can all affect the position.
An AI tool only knows what you tell it. If important information is missing, it may still produce a confident answer rather than recognising that the picture is incomplete.
There’s another practical distinction. In England and Wales, general legal advice isn’t necessarily a reserved legal activity. The fact that an AI answer sounds like legal advice doesn’t tell you whether it has been checked by a regulated lawyer or whether the provider is subject to the same professional duties and protections.
There is also the risk of inaccurate or invented information. The SRA's August 2026 warning to solicitors and law firms about the misuse of AI. It specifically highlights fictitious cases, references and apparently factual assertions that can look convincing despite having no basis in fact.
An AI answer may also draw on law or terminology from the wrong jurisdiction. A well-written answer isn't necessarily a reliable one.
So, there is a significant difference between using AI to understand what questions might be relevant and relying on it to tell you what you should do.
When should you get legal advice?
Think about what is at stake, and what would happen if the answer were wrong. If you're trying to understand the basics of a subject before a meeting, AI may give you exactly what you need.
If you’re deciding whether you can terminate an employee, sign a substantial contract, respond to a threatened claim, dismiss a supplier, make a regulatory notification or take another step that could have significant legal or financial consequences, getting the legal position right becomes much more important.
That is where legal judgement comes in.
A lawyer can test the information you have provided, ask about things you may not have realised were relevant and help you balance the legal position against the practical and commercial outcome you want.
If you are using AI to explore the issue first, a useful check is to ask: ‘What information could be missing that would change this answer?’ It may help surface gaps before you act or speak to a lawyer.
AI won't know your commercial priorities unless you tell it
The legal position is only one part of many business decisions.
You may technically have the right to take a particular course of action but decide that protecting a customer, employee, investor or supplier relationship is more important.
You may be prepared to accept one risk to get a transaction completed quickly, while another risk is a deal-breaker.
An experienced commercial lawyer should be helping you navigate those choices as well as explaining the law.
Be careful what you share
Think before putting contracts, correspondence, legal advice, employee information or other confidential or commercially sensitive material into an AI tool. The safeguards vary between systems, and an approved enterprise tool may be very different from a public consumer service.
If in doubt, use anonymised or high-level information and check your organisation's AI and information-security policies, as well as the terms and settings of the tool you are using.
For more detail, read our guide to what information you shouldn't put into an AI tool.
So, can AI answer your legal question?
Sometimes it can help you understand the issue. It can often help you prepare to deal with it.
The greater the consequence of getting the answer wrong, however, the more important it is to have someone who can apply legal and commercial judgement to your particular circumstances.
Used in that way, AI and legal advice can work well together: AI helps you do more of the preparation, leaving your lawyer to focus on the parts where their experience and judgement add most value.
For more on preparing a clear legal brief, read our article on how to use AI when instructing your lawyer.
