The Law Society of Scotland has launched a new guide to help Scottish solicitors navigate the growing range of GenAI tools, while avoiding potential risks posed to their businesses and clients.

The Guide to Generative AI, created alongside AI legal platform Wordsmith, was compiled by experts with the Law Society’s technology law and practice committee, providing answers to solicitor’s questions on the reliability and accuracy of using AI in a legal setting, issues of confidentiality, and how AI might impact law firm insurance.

Among the issues highlighted in using GenAI are the possibility of hallucinations, where AI tools will simply make up case citations or omit important contextual information in their output. 

Law firms are warned that if they rely on the output of such legal tech tools as the basis for decision making, they expose themselves to potential claims for poor advice given to clients, with the Law Society urging extreme caution and encouraging firms to use AI output as a starting point rather than a replacement for human expertise and professional judgment.

The guide makes it clear that any errors made by AI are the responsibility of solicitors, so close oversight is encouraged to make sure these mistakes don’t come back to haunt law firms.

When it comes to the thorny issue of client confidentiality, the new guide stresses that solicitors be careful not to disclose sensitive information to any third parties, including AI developers. With AI models using input from previous users to improve their answers, there is a real danger that lawyers could unwittingly disclose client information to the world at large.

The Law Society claims that even when client consent isn’t strictly necessary, solicitors should think twice before unilaterally deciding to use AI without client’s knowledge.

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Stuart Munro, technology law and practice committee member, said: “Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way legal services are provided, so it’s important that solicitors are properly informed to decide whether it should be playing a role in their businesses.

“There’s been widespread adoption of AI solutions by larger firms and it’s important that smaller businesses understand that this technology is also accessible to them. All users need to understand the specific benefits and the risks that must be managed. We are keeping a close eye as AI evolves and will continue to update this guide to ensure it’s relevant.”

Gartner estimates that the legal tech market will reach $50 billion (£41.5 bn) in value by 2027, mostly on the back of rapid developments in GenAI, with the technology beginning to be used to cover a host of admin roles, like contract management and billing.