In short, yes. The professional indemnity policy we arrange covers claims arising from the professional services you provide to clients. This means that coverage is intentionally broad.
Instead of the policy explicitly listing what tools you may use to deliver your services, insurance covers claims where your professional services are alleged to have caused your client a financial loss. If AI is used as part of delivering those services, it doesn’t change the fundamental basis of cover.
However, where you have to be careful is implementing appropriate risk management around the use of AI. This is something the insurer would expect so you’re not just using it blindly.
Risk management controls to implement around the use of AI in your business
Verifying facts and sources
AI gets things wrong. A lot. Here are some processes you should implement to avoid incorrect information.
- Verify factual statements against reliable sources
- If you’re using AI to produce industry statistics for client reports, check the figures from the original research
- Review any calculations independently
- AI is good at summarising information, but where possible check the original source material
Avoiding intellectual property issues
This was one of the risk management controls the insurer explicitly highlighted.
You must never assume AI-generated content is free of copyright concerns so it’s a good idea to run plagiarism checks. Copyright disputes are relatively common in creative industries, which is why it’s important not to assume AI-generated content is free from intellectual property concerns.
Whenever using third-party content, it’s crucial you obtain the correct licenses where required.
Having an audit trail
We’re huge fans of documentation at With Jack because it helps you in the defence of a claim. This extends to showing the insurer you’ve demonstrated reasonable care when using AI in your business. To show you’ve used AI responsibly:
- Keep records of fact-checking
- Document key decisions
- Retain source material
This can be a simple spreadsheet that records and dates your task completed using AI, the sources used or any fact checking and amendments before the work was provided to a client.
If a dispute ever arises, these records can demonstrate that you didn’t blindly rely on AI and instead exercised appropriate quality control.
Using AI in your business should be treated in much the same way as working with a junior employee or someone on work experience. Recognise that some work will still require review, quality assurance checks and verification before being passed on to a client.
However, to circle back to the original question of “Does my insurance policy cover the use of AI?”, if AI is used as part of delivering your professional services and a valid claim is brought against you, your professional indemnity policy will help.
