Fudia Smartt Explores Legal Risks of Employer AI Use in BCL Legal’s ‘The Brief’

4 March 2024

With the exponential increase in businesses using AI for their recruitment and HR functions Employment Partner Fudia Smartt explores the potential legal pitfalls of AI in an opinion piece for BCL Legal’s ‘The Brief’.

Potential legal issues with employer AI use

Whilst the benefits of using AI to streamline data collation, processes and reduce overall costs are established, Fudia cautioned: “at present the UK lacks any legislative framework on AI usage, which gives rise to potential legal issues.”

Areas of concern

Outlining some of the areas employers should be concerned about when using AI, Fudia highlighted how employers can fall foul of discrimination and data protection laws, noting: “the Equality Act 2010 makes no distinction between human and AI-assisted decision-making when it comes to liability”, further adding: “Under Article 22 of the UK GDPR, individuals are provided with the right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.”

What’s the next step?

Continuing on to discuss common law, Fudia writes about the lack of clarity around AI and key legal concepts before discussing future plans from the government on this issue.

Read the article here in BCL Legal’s ‘The Brief’

Fudia Smartt
Partner – Employment
Fudia Smartt is a Partner Solicitor at Spencer West. She specialises in all employment law both domestic and international, disputes and litigation.