How to use AI for client intake chatbots in Australia

Steps

1. Say that it is a tool and not advice

   The first screen states that the person is talking to a tool, that the firm has not yet accepted the matter, and that the answers are not legal advice. The Uniform Law regulators’ statement does not let a bot hold out as a solicitor. Keep that sentence visible, not in a footer the visitor never sees.

2. Collect the minimum

   Ask for what the firm needs to decide whether it can act. Do not ask the bot to “get the whole story” before a person has read the conflict and the court rules. The OAIC’s guidance on commercial AI products is the privacy reading of a form that over-collects.

3. Read the vendor’s privacy terms

   Know where the transcript is stored, who else can see it, and whether it trains a model. Queensland Guidance Statement No. 37 and the Law Society of New South Wales guide both expect that reading before client information goes in. The privacy tracker on this site lists the regulator pages.

4. A lawyer reads the intake before advice

   Conflicts, urgency, limitation and the forum are a solicitor’s check. The bot does not open a file by itself and it does not send advice. If the transcript is wrong, the lawyer asks the client, not the model.

Record the checks: Confidentiality tasks · Open the court note for the forum

Sources

• OAIC: commercially available AI products
• Uniform Law regulators: Statement on AI use
• LSNSW: Solicitor's guide to responsible AI use
• QLS Guidance Statement No 37