Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a hypothetical question but is now a valuable tool that has taken the legal field by storm, streamlining research, drafting, and more. While AI can make the process of creating an estate plan seem simpler, knowing when and how to use AI in the estate planning process is the key to saving time and money.
Keep Private Information Out of Public AI Models
Every AI Company has a different policy regarding how they use the data users’ input. Some, like ChatGPT, Companies may also share user chats with other companies for targeted advertising purposes. Many model’s privacy policies, like, emphasize that you should not input anything into their chat bot that you do not want someone else to see.
This is particularly important regarding private legal data. Chat logs, as opposed to attorney-client communications and attorney work product, are not privileged information., the Southern District of New York ruled that AI chats between a user and the public-use AI, Claude, are not subject to privilege. This means that all discussions a user has with public-use AI, even if that discussion relates to a legal matter, is subject to disclosure in a lawsuit, and hence, not private.
For this reason, limiting the amount of private information you input into a public-use chat bot is the best approach to keep confidential information private, especially when sensitive legal, financial, or medical information is involved. Switching to a private-use chat bot may help mitigate this issue, but the safest practice is to avoid inputting all private data into AI.
Use AI for Summary Instead of Analysis
Clients interested in leveraging AI should use AI for summary instead of analysis. Use it to summarize family connections, important points, and assets in advance of a meeting. Providing your attorney with supplemental information to be used to prepare an estate plan can save an attorney’s time, and therefore your money,
Using AI for analysis, on the other hand, could lead you down rabbit holes that are not specific to your needs, facts or circumstances. When AI leads its user down irrelevant paths, this can lead the user to contact their attorney for unnecessary clarification, requiring extra billable time that is costly to the client.
Avoid Using AI to Review an Estate Plan
It can be tempting to input an estate plan into an AI model, but this can be more frustrating than beneficial. Due to the people-pleasing nature of chat bots, AI bots will invent problems that do not exist or try to offer irrelevant guidance to satisfy the user’s prompts. While this can be good in reviewing ordinary documents, AI frequently misunderstands the nuances of an estate plan and can lead users down paths that wastes their time, money, and causes unnecessary worry. AI, despite its access to vast amounts of knowledge, lacks the personal touch and understanding of a situation that an attorney has. The best approach when reviewing documents prepared by an attorney is to set up a meeting to go over the estate plan more comprehensively, addressing questions as they come up. This avoids confusion and helps the estate planning process run smoothly.
Use AI for Research
If you want to understand certain estate planning concepts or procedures, AI is a great starting point. You may use it to better understand legal terminology, Internal Revenue Code Sections or to summarize a case. AI hallucinates, so it is important to fact check the output before acting on it.
0 Comments