• Swindon & Wiltshire Experts
• Wednesday September 17 2025
• Author Name: Peter Jones

Does AI write good employment contracts?

Take heed if you’re planning to let AI write your employment contracts, says Peter Jones of the HR Dept

Artificial intelligence has made a remarkable impact since it first came into popular consciousness in 2023; wowing people with its vocabulary, efficiency and apparent insight.

But scratch a little below the surface and it is riddled with shortcomings which can trip up the unwary.

Asking AI to write an employment contract is a classic case in point – and incidentally, before AI the same risks applied to Googling “employment contracts”.

AI can write an employment contract. It can write one quickly, and at little to no cost up front.

But it is unlikely to be a good employment contract.

And by the time you find this out, it may be too late and cost you big down the line: either locking you into terms which are unnecessarily disadvantageous to you, being unenforceable then you try to protect your imagined rights or being plain wrong on key legal points.

So what could go awry? Here are three particular dangers.

The first is factually incorrect information. Most likely this will come from AIs scouring outdated sources, or laws from a different jurisdiction.

Employment law is constantly changing and so it is relatively easy for an AI to draw on a source from six months ago, only for it to be out of date now – AI being AI, it does not know any better.

That said, when it comes to factually incorrect information, AIs are also more than capable of just making something up too.

The second danger is that AI will not on its own understand the context of your business and the people in it.

This can lead to it inserting clauses that are inappropriate; or omitting ones which are essential.

The third risk is the fact that there is no backstop with an AI. It has no legal or professional qualifications, so when it goes wrong you are on your own.

Peter Jones, managing director of the HR Dept Swindon & Wiltshire, works with businesses across Swindon, Chippenham, Hungerford, Marlborough, Calne, Devizes, Burford, Lechlade and Carterton.