The legal risks of using AI in business

Have you actually read the terms of the AI tools you use? Five things worth checking before they cause you a problem.

Making a campaign, an image or a video with artificial intelligence can feel as simple as opening a tool and typing a prompt. Underneath that simplicity, though, every service sets its own rules on intellectual property, privacy, commercial use and liability — and those rules aren’t uniform.

They shift depending on the model, the country, the specific feature and the type of account you’re on. A free or personal licence doesn’t necessarily come with the same guarantees as a business plan.

Here are five questions agencies, production companies, brands and media outlets should settle before publishing anything made with AI.

The main legal risks of using AI in business#

1. Can you use the output commercially?#

The risk: unauthorised commercial use, and licence terms that shift by account type.

A tool letting you generate something doesn’t mean the result is automatically yours to use however you like.

Some providers assign users whatever rights they may hold in the output. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for instance, states that the user retains rights over their input files and owns the output, to the extent the law allows. That contractual assignment, though, doesn’t make the content original, exclusive or legally protectable in its own right.

Before a piece goes into a campaign, check whether the account permits commercial use and whether any specific restrictions apply.

2. Did you have the right to use the input materials?#

The risk: intellectual property claims over whatever you fed into the system.

Terms of service typically make the user responsible for holding the necessary permissions over any photographs, videos, text, trade marks, voices or databases fed into the system.

Even where a provider offers contractual protections, these can fall away if the customer didn’t hold the rights to the input materials, or ignored the filters and safeguards that were available.

Running someone else’s material through an AI tool doesn’t turn it into a rights-free asset.

3. Can the provider use your data?#

The risk: privacy exposure, and unintended training on corporate data.

Data handling policies often differ between personal and business accounts.

Anthropic, for example, states that it doesn’t by default use inputs and outputs from its commercial products to train models, though different terms apply to its consumer products. OpenAI sets out separate, specific commitments for enterprise customer data.

Feeding confidential information or personal data into a free or individual account can therefore create exposure that wouldn’t exist under a corporate contract.

4. Do you have any protection against third-party claims?#

The risk: no legal cover if a claim comes in.

Some providers offer indemnification for certain intellectual property claims, but usually only on specific products, models or plans — typically enterprise tiers.

Adobe, for example, notes that certain Firefly plans and features may include protection against intellectual property claims, though what’s actually covered depends on the plan, the feature used and the contractual terms in force. Third-party models integrated into the same platform can be governed by entirely different rules.

Saying “it was made with Adobe” or “it was AI-generated” tells you nothing about what protection, if any, was actually in place.

5. Can you prove which terms applied?#

The risk: no record of which version of the terms was in force at the time.

Terms get updated, and they can also change the moment you switch to an API, a business account, an external integration or a third-party model.

Every asset should be tied to the tool, the model, the account type and the version of the terms that applied when it was created.

How does VeriqX help?#

VeriqX documents the tools and models used, the prompts, the input files, the intermediate stages and the human involvement behind each piece. That evidence is bound to the final file through a certificate, timestamping and standards such as C2PA / Content Credentials.

Recording the account type and applicable terms alongside that evidence lets you show exactly which rules governed a piece when it was made. VeriqX doesn’t remove legal risk and doesn’t replace legal review, but it does spare you from having to reconstruct the whole process from memory once a claim arrives.

In practice, it’s a transparency and protection layer covering commercial use of AI, intellectual property, privacy, and compliance with the terms of service of the models and platforms you rely on.

Knowing which AI tool generated a piece of content isn’t enough on its own. You need to be able to show which account, under which terms, and using which materials.

Key points and frequently asked questions#

What are the biggest legal risks of using AI in business?#

Losing commercial rights, infringing someone else’s intellectual property, leaking confidential data through free accounts, and being unable to evidence which licences applied.

Do AI platforms protect companies against legal claims?#

Only some tools, and only on corporate plans or specific licences (certain Adobe Firefly plans, for example). Free accounts rarely offer any cover at all.

How does VeriqX reduce the legal risks of using AI?#

VeriqX certifies the tool, the account used, the prompts, the version of the terms in force and the human involvement, through timestamping and the C2PA standard.

Need to assess the legal risks of AI in your business?#

• Technical consultancy and corporate certification: [email protected]
• Talk to the author directly (David Lahoz): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlahoz/