AI has become one of the most controversial technologies in the world with there being two sides to the coin. There’s those who feel as though AI is a huge positive when it comes to streamlining the workflow and allowing businesses to work faster to achieve their goals, especially with the use of AI chatbots that have almost eliminated the need for having a customer service team. However, it’s not all seen as positive, as some see AI as a negative due to it having the potential to take many jobs in the future.
When it comes to professional negligence cases, professionals may face liability from losses caused by their reliance on AI. They may also face liability for choosing not to use AI in their practice, as some clients might see it as an essential technology for the future. As the use of all forms of AI becomes ever greater and more widespread, professionals cannot afford to either ignore or simply embrace AI. They need to consciously consider whether it’s a good idea to implement the technology into their practices.
This guide will explore how AI can impact your professional negligence case, both positively and negatively. We hope this helps you gather a better understanding of the technology and how it can be used going forward.
Using AI as a Professional
Professionals might use AI to help them answer questions at a quicker rate, freeing them up to work on other essential parts of the business. It can also help them with researching and rationalising large volumes of data, as AI can analyse this to give you a clear set of findings that you might not have realised yourself when looking at the data. Additionally, AI can produce unique advice per client, which gives a personalised experience that each client will value highly.
There’s always a risk that AI is misused and misinterpreted, leading to professionals wrongly relying on it for information when providing advice to their clients. In the worst case scenario, this can result in the professional becoming negligent and then having a negligence case be opened up on them due to their poor duty of care.
Professionals are liable for the way they use technology like AI, as they owe their clients the best standard of care while they’re under contract with them. When this is broken by offering wrong advice or information, it makes the professional liable. This is when professional negligence solicitors will need to get involved to help rectify any substantial financial losses that have arisen due to the negligence of professionals using AI.
In the case of AI models malfunctioning and causing a loss, professionals could make a claim against the provider of the AI, and a client who suffered a loss may have a claim in product liability against the AI developer rather than the professional using it. However, this is unexplored and an uncertain area of the law at the moment, so there’s no guarantee that a case would be successful.
Avoiding AI as a Professional
You might think that avoiding the use of AI will get rid of all the potential risks of something going wrong and negligence occurring. However, if professionals choose to not use AI when providing their advice or services, they could face a new type of claim. There is a principle called the ‘Bolam test’ that was developed in the context of clinical negligence and in situations where the standard of practice of a professional should be that of the reasonable expectations of their client. This means that if the client expects AI to be used and it’s not, it could lead to a negligence case being raised.
With AI becoming increasingly capable of handling large amounts of data and offering realistic outcomes, it’s quickly becoming somewhat of a necessity for professionals who want to make their services effective for the future. It could even be that using AI in many professions is the new accepted standard of practice. With this growing confidence in AI, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we soon see professionals refusing to use it being ridiculed and becoming the subject of a professional negligence claim.
What Should Professionals Do?
To avoid becoming negligent, professionals should stay up to date with AI developments. It’s about finding the perfect balance between innovation and caution, especially as AI is becoming more common in several different industries. It has the potential to offer expert advice that can go beyond what some professionals will already know, which is something that can’t be ignored when using the technology.
With courts perhaps changing the negligence principles to this new technology, it’s worth professionals working together to create a plan of when using AI will be the most beneficial and when it can take a backseat, as this will help everyone get a clear understanding of what’s required from the technology.