Workplace scenario · 03 of 13
You want AI to review a client contract
A long contract, a deadline and a free AI tool one click away.
The situation
A client has sent a 40-page contract and wants your comments by tomorrow. A free AI tool you use at home could summarize it in a minute.
Principles involved
What do you do?
Choose the option you would take, then open it to see how it plays out. Reviewing the other options is part of the exercise.
Option A: Upload it to the free tool. It’s faster.
Risky
The contract is the client’s confidential information, and the free tool’s terms may allow uses your organization hasn’t agreed to. Speed doesn’t change who the information belongs to.
Option B: Remove the client’s name, then upload it.
Risky
Removing the name rarely makes a contract anonymous. The deal, the amounts and the dates can identify the client on their own.
Option C: Use your organization’s approved AI tool, share only the clauses you need, and send anything important to legal.
The best choice
You get the speed, the information stays where your organization’s terms protect it, and a specialist checks what matters.
Option D: Don’t use AI for contracts at all.
Safe, but it costs you
Sometimes that’s right, especially if no approved tool is cleared for client documents. If one is, you’re giving up useful help.
Takeaway
Before you paste or upload, ask: is this mine to share, in this tool? The approved tool and the minimum needed are usually enough.
Sources
What each source establishes, and its limits. The practices and recommendations on this page are ours, and the facts come from the sources. See every source we use.
- How do we ensure anonymisation is effective? UK Information Commissioner’s Office · Current guidance · Regulator guidance Explains that whether data is anonymous depends on context and on the means reasonably likely to be used to identify people; removing names alone may not be enough. Limits: UK guidance. Other countries’ legal tests differ.