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ARTICLE · 04 MARCH 2026

AI And… Privilege. Are My Chats With AI Privileged?

Gowling WLG
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Can I seek legal advice from AI? Will my conversations with it be privileged such that I can avoid disclosure or discovery in litigation? In this article we consider the potential risks to privilege where AI...

United StatesTechnology
Sean Adams
Sean Adams
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith
Michael Carter
Michael Carter
Christopher Richards
Christopher Richards
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Can I seek legal advice from AI? Will my conversations with it be privileged such that I can avoid disclosure or discovery in litigation? In this article we consider the potential risks to privilege where AI is used to give legal advice.

What you need to know about AI chats and legal privilege

  • There are a number of hurdles to clear before advice is privileged, but the starting point is you need a qualified lawyer in the loop to seek or give advice, or in the case of litigation be seeking the information for the purpose of that litigation.
  • No matter how good they are, chatbots aren't lawyers and cannot confer legal professional privilege on the 'advice' they provide. The person using the chatbot as a research tool needs to be the relevantly qualified lawyer, or the purpose of seeking the information from the chatbot needs to be litigation before privilege is even possible.

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