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Consulting of companies external legal department and operational experience

Artificial intelligence: challenge and opportunity for entrepreneurs

Artificial intelligence is on everyone's lips. Every entrepreneur is aware that they will have to integrate it into their processes in the future in order to survive on the market. At the same time, the implementation of this technology is associated with drastic changes in work processes, structures and corporate culture. In order to avoid legal risks, this requires a 360° legal evaluation.

Companies, especially SMEs, must deal with AI in order to remain competitive, exploit efficiency potential and act in a legally secure manner. AI is not just an IT topic, but also affects strategy, processes, law and ethics - and should therefore be considered by management.

New challenge: humans and AI in a team

In this new era, it should not be underestimated in legal and social terms that colleagues will not be humans in the future, but "AI bots". Who is responsible if they make a mistake? How will such "hybrid teams" work? In this context, change management is becoming a success factor more than ever. Works councils also play a special role here and need to be involved.

Holistic approach through strong partnerships
The introduction of AI requires a holistic approach that takes technical, organizational and cultural aspects into account. This is why we work with selected partners who provide companies with comprehensive support:

- Shayma Kurz(Digital Advice Consulting, Abu Dhabi) - experienced advisor for AI Strategy & Digital Transformation. She conducts AI Readiness Assessments, supports companies in the strategic introduction of Artificial Intelligence, trains C-Suite executives in a targeted manner and qualifies the workforce
in dealing with AI. 

- Thorsten Habermann-Muhsal (prettygoodideas, Lake Starnberg) - Transformation expert, founder of an AI boot camp for CEOs and researcher on the interplay between society and digitalization. Together we analyze the status quo, accompany the initial AI implementation or optimize existing processes.

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Legal implications

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These include learning from data, reasoning, problem solving, perception and language processing.

The best known are so-called Large Language Models (LLM), a special type of AI model that is based on natural language processing. It is trained on very large amounts of text in order to understand, generate or translate human language. LLMs such as GPT or Deep Seek analyze patterns in language and use them to generate new, meaningful texts. Other use cases include image recognition & computer vision, speech processing (Speech AI), decision support & forecasting, recommendation systems, robotics & autonomous systems, fraud detection & security and process automation (RPA + AI).

Thematically, companies are primarily concerned with:

  • Increased efficiency, competitive advantages, cost reduction,
  • Innovation & new business models, customer expectations,
  • Risk management, regulation & compliance.

The legal issues relating to artificial intelligence (AI) are diverse and affect numerous areas of law. Nevertheless, one should be aware that AI is above all a special type of data management and processing. In this respect, one must be aware that all AI-related topics must be clearly structured and manageable and that one should certainly not refrain from implementation out of concern about possible (legal) stumbling blocks or fears. Certain topics are particularly relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially those that have a direct impact on business operations, liability and compliance.

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Possible prism of legal topics

Legal issues are the main focus of AI:

  • Data protection law (GDPR in the EU), i.e. the usual topics of processing personal data by AI systems, consent and purpose limitation, transparency and information obligations as well as the rights of data subjects (e.g. information, deletion).
  • An important topic is copyright, i.e. the use of copyrighted data for AI training or the protectability of AI-generated content or the rights to training data and models.
  • Product liability / tort law should also not be underestimated, i.e. who is liable for damage caused by AI systems? What duties of care apply to development, use and monitoring? What relevance do the EU regulation on AI liability and AI regulation (AI Act) have? This is in the direct context of contract law, in particular license agreements for AI use (e.g. use of SaaS AI platforms) or service level agreements and liability for defects in AI services. How to draft contracts for AI-based services (e.g. consulting, automation).
  • Aspects of ethics and discrimination law are becoming increasingly important, especially bias and discrimination through algorithmic decisions. Also important in this context are transparency obligations for automated decision-making as well as fairness and explainable AI.
  • Competition law , such as antitrust issues, plays a role in training on large data sets or the abuse of market power by AI-driven systems, especially in the case of large, possibly market-dominant companies.
  • Last but not least, all users must be measured against the regulation of the EU AI Act, i.e. the risk-based approach to categorizing AI systems, which imposes obligations on providers, operators and users of AI systems.

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