Is it allowed to use AI for transcribing client meetings in Australia?
Only with the consent the state or territory recording law requires, in a tool whose hosting and training terms the firm has read, and with a person checking the transcript.
Guide
How to use AI for transcribing client meetings in Australia
A transcript of a client meeting is a record of personal and often privileged information. Consent, the hosting terms and a human check come before anyone relies on it.
Steps
Get a lawful basis to record
Check the surveillance devices or listening devices statute for the place where the meeting is held, and the place where any remote participant is. Consent that the statute requires is obtained before the recording starts, from the people the statute covers. A tool that “joins the call” does not collect that consent for you.
Use a tool whose hosting you can explain
Prefer a tenancy whose contract states where the audio and the transcript are stored and processed, and whether they are used to train a model. The OAIC’s guidance on commercial AI products is the privacy reading. Queensland Guidance Statement No. 37 is the confidentiality reading. “The vendor has an Australian office” is not a hosting answer. The hosting guide shows how this site separates those sentences.
Check the transcript against the meeting
Names, figures, denials and advice are the lines that go wrong. The solicitor who was in the meeting reads them. The Law Society of New South Wales guide does not treat the transcript as a note the solicitor has not checked. The Uniform Law statement keeps responsibility for what is later put in a letter or a proof.
Decide how long it is kept
Write down who can open the audio, when it is deleted, and whether the vendor keeps a copy after the matter. A retention setting you have not read is not a policy. If the transcript will go on the client file, say so in the file note.
Record the checks: Confidentiality tasks · Open the court note for the forum
Sources
Australian data hosting · Confidentiality tasks · Board minutes and privilege · Privacy and regulator guidance · All guides
Questions
What tools are used for transcribing client meetings?
Use the firm’s approved tenancy, not a personal bot that joins the call. Read the profile’s hosting field. This page does not approve a transcription product.
Is a transcript privileged because the meeting was?
Not by itself. Sending the audio to a vendor can be a disclosure. Read the terms before a privileged conversation is recorded. The board-minutes guide is the same problem in a different room.