Contracting For The Future: How AI Is Reshaping Risk, Responsibility, And Commercial Frameworks

Last week, we had the privilege of presenting to a group of IT and cybersecurity experts in the higher learning sector at BCNET CONNECT 2026 about important issues to consider when contracting for AI and AI augmented services, as well as emerging trends in the AI space. Here are the key takeaways:

• Ownership of AI-generated outputs remains unsettled under Canadian intellectual property laws, which generally require a human creator. While the courts and legislators work to resolve these tensions, organizations should carefully consider contractual ownership structures and potential uses of AI outputs to mitigate risk.
• Data confidentiality remains a key risk issue. It is now common knowledge that disclosing information to public AI models makes that information part of training datasets and vulnerable to reproduction. However, even for enterprise AI solutions, it is important to watch for potential secondary uses, including as training data, for model provider development purposes