ANALYSIS: Privacy Tops List of Practice Areas Advising on AI

Much of the current media coverage surrounding generative AI is employment-related and directed at fears over its potential to displace significant numbers of workers. But according to Bloomberg Law’s 2023 State of Practice survey, data privacy is the top practice area in which lawyers advise their clients on AI, edging out employment.

The survey also reveals that more than three-quarters of the 752 attorneys surveyed haven’t yet advised on artificial intelligence for the 11 practices areas included in the survey. This is likely because of generative AI’s relative newness, and this number is likely to go down as AI becomes more mainstream.

Of the lawyers who said that they’ve advised on generative AI, 65 said that it was in the area of data privacy; 53 selected employment law; and 41 said that they advised on cybersecurity.

The demand for guidance related to clients’ data privacy concerns isn’t surprising. The collection of extremely large volumes of information used to train machine learning technologies consistently raises privacy concerns, and have led to litigation in some instances. TikTok settled claims in 2021 in an MDL that alleged it misused users’ biometric data.

While the number of attorneys providing advice on generative AI is still small, AI is here to stay. Clients will be seeking their lawyers’ advice on the technology in the near future, which means that attorneys need to be versed on the topic, if not to simply avoid the blunders of these New York attorneys.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can find related content on our Litigation Intelligence Center and In Focus: Artificial Intelligence pages.

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