Artificial intelligence

Name: Bristows
Price range: $$$

Bristows is a leading artificial intelligence law firm. Our AI lawyers help in-house legal teams build, buy and deploy AI - and respond when AI systems, outputs or decisions are challenged.

From individual AI contracts and product launches to organisation-wide AI programmes, we bring together specialists in technology, intellectual property, data protection and regulation.

AI law | How we can help AI Resources Speak to our AI team

How our AI lawyers can help

Develop and launch AI products

Legal support for developing AI models, products and services, from access to training data through to commercial launch.

Training data rights, licensing and privacy.
Intellectual property protection, ownership and use of outputs.
Open-source and open-weight model licensing.
Regulatory requirements and commercialisation agreements.

Relevant experience:

Advising Google DeepMind on activities related to its most strategically important AI models designed to accelerate scientific research and to solve some of the biggest challenges in science and technology.
Supporting Tesco on a strategic partnership with Mistral.

Procure AI and negotiate contracts

Support for buying AI tools, commissioning bespoke development and negotiating strategic collaborations.

Review supplier terms and identify negotiation priorities.
Allocate responsibility for data use, outputs, performance, IP and liability.
Prepare AI contract templates, schedules and negotiation playbooks.
Address implementation responsibilities, regulatory cooperation and exit.

Relevant experience:

Advising AstraZeneca on the procurement of a range of strategically important AI tools and AI collaboration agreements.
Supporting Kaluza on a number of cross-border deals relating to the licensing of its retail energy AI platform.

Put AI governance into practice

Help your business move from pilots and policies to practical controls for using AI across products, services and operations.

Assess AI use cases and applicable legal requirements.
Develop AI governance frameworks, policies and approval processes.
Set responsibilities for oversight, monitoring and escalation.
Review and improve AI risk assessment and approval processes.

Relevant experience:

Helping Smith & Nephew to design and implement a new AI governance framework to help our client identify, manage and mitigate AI risks.
Supported the development and implementation of a series of policies, use cases and training modules for Associated Newspapers.

Handle AI disputes and investigations

AI legal advice when AI systems, outputs or decisions face challenge, regulatory scrutiny or an incident.

Assess exposure and develop a response strategy.
Handle contractual, copyright, data protection and trade secrets disputes.
Respond to regulatory investigations and enforcement.
Develop a response grounded in the technical evidence and your commercial priorities.

Relevant experience:

Advising a world-renowned AI lab on a wide range of AI compliance issues and disputes relating to its AI products.
Helping a social media platform in responding to requests for information from several data protection regulators in relation to its large language model

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Artificial intelligence - Spotlight

What others say about our AI expertise

“We work with Bristows on all of our data protection matters, whether in the UK, EU, or beyond. This work includes supporting us on our most complex matter—product development, breach response, and dealing with data protection authorities.”
Legal 500 2027

“The team really understands what we do as a business. This means that they provide commercial insights and proactively spot issues that are specific to us as a business. The team has a commercial and pragmatic approach, which we value highly.”
Legal 500 2027

“The team continues to be sensational. They have managed to consistently stay ahead of the curve in terms of skills and have offered us support on a wide range of international, European, and UK-focused topics across AI, data access, and commercial relationships.”
Legal 500 2027

“The team does a good job of marketing its capabilities and puts out a lot of thought leadership. They give a good impression of working at the coalface of interesting work in this space.”
Legal 500 2027

Bristows’ team is extremely knowledgeable, practical and solutions oriented.
Legal 500 2026

AI resources

Podcasts | Blog

Browse our AI law resources - podcasts, guides and analysis on the EU AI Act, AI governance, AI compliance and AI contracts. We also, frequently, publish podcast episodes and insight articles in relation to legal, commercial and industrial developments relating to artificial intelligence.

Spotlight on agentic AI

Setting out the key concepts, legal considerations and governance questions that arise when organisations deploy agentic AI - from initial procurement through to ongoing oversight.

AI contracting: Templates and playbook

A suite of practical documents designed to support robust governance while streamlining AI contracting and avoiding unnecessary friction.

AI risk assessment accelerator

Helping legal and risk teams enable faster, safer AI adoption.

Roadmap podcast

Conversations with Bristows AI lawyers and industry experts about developing, buying and using AI. We explore the legal and commercial decisions behind the technology, and how businesses are approaching them in practice.

Artificial intelligence blog

Our lawyers examine developments in AI regulation, contracts, intellectual property and disputes - and what they mean for businesses developing and using AI.

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FAQs

What legal issues can arise when businesses use AI?

The use of AI can raise a wide range of AI legal issues across intellectual property, data protection, contracting, regulation, governance and liability. The issues that arise will depend on whether an organisation is developing, procuring or deploying AI, and how the technology is being used in practice.

Listen to our podcast: AI in the workplace
Read more: Generative AI: Key issues when integrating AI into your products and services

How does the EU AI Act affect businesses?

What makes AI procurement different from standard technology procurement?

Who owns AI-generated outputs?

What legal issues arise with agentic AI?

Agentic AI systems can raise questions about authority, accountability, oversight and liability where systems act, recommend, transact or trigger workflows with varying levels of human involvement. The allocation of responsibility between developers, deployers, suppliers and users is an area of active legal and regulatory development, with implications for AI governance and AI compliance frameworks.

Read more: Spotlight on agentic AI | From procurement to governance
Watch our Tech Summit 2026 recording: Agentic AI: Legal, Risk & Regulatory Deep Dive

What issues can arise if an AI system, output or decision is challenged?

Challenges involving AI can raise contractual, regulatory, intellectual property, data protection, confidentiality, product liability and reputational issues. These situations often require organisations to understand both the legal context and the technical facts about how the relevant AI system was developed, deployed or used, including questions of compliance, AI regulation and artificial intelligence law.

Watch here: Tech Summit 2026: AI & IP Disputes: Litigation Perspectives
Listen here: Agentic AI | liability and risk