2025 AI in Business Litigation Report

Setting the Stage for Never Before Seen Business Disputes

In the year 2025, we watched Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) primarily Generative AI become a prominent technology that has taken root across the industrial spectrum. Generative AI is already commonly used as a virtual assistant to help people conduct tasks that can be easily optimized. In 2025, I have witnessed the unfolding of the AI revolution or implementation AI mandate, depending on who you ask. I am personally optimistic about the technology so long as it operates within legal, moral, and ethical constraints and does not supplant trusted and capable human decisionmakers. Cases involving AI have already been filed in our California Courts, who remain highly sophisticated and up to the task to ensure that use of all technology remains lawful under our existing legal scheme. In 2026 and the coming years, we will watch as precedent is created.

The truth is that AI is now as common as software or coding. It is implemented into most everything and provides another layer of assistance to the user. AI depending on the manner in which it is utilized and developed can be quite similar or an upgrade from previous code. When computers began to be a staple around the house and in the beginnings of the internet, it was not uncommon for people to say “let the computer think.” Now the computers really can think with the help of Artificial Intelligence technology. But until those computers have bank accounts, they don’t have to deal with the same level of repercussions as humans and businesses. New technologies will find ways to fail extraordinary on the road to success. But when those failures damage humans or companies, then I predict we will see lawyers using existing legal theories to ensure justice continues to prevail.

I look forward to working together with the legal profession to determine which new rules, regulations, and legal theories will be utilized to affect the use and implementation of Artificial Intelligence in a positive manner that respects the technology. In 2025, I passed an American Bar Association Young Lawyer Resolution citing California’s Generative AI Judicial and Practical Guidance and comparing it to the model rules already implemented in jurisdictions across the country soliciting public comment and opinion. This comes after many legal research companies began implementing Generative AI into their platforms to assist attorneys. Careful discussion and open dialogue is key to ensuring that artificial intelligence is fully understood and that the oversight of this technology properly takes place.

AI is most commonly accepted as a tool to empower the next generation of professionals. The proper implementation of AI should never displace capable and trusted humans. AI was developed to assist and empower professionals and is becoming an effective tool for using this powerful new technology to boost productivity of already successful companies and workforces. Still, there are many tech companies at the forefront of their industries Artificial Intelligence marketing and promoting the technology in applications never seen before. Human decision making remains absolutely necessary to comport with existing notions of fairness and justice at every level of company decisions and operations.

As with all technologies: developers and entrepreneurs may look to develop, market, and sell proprietary Artificial Intelligence models. While the desire for preserving proprietary technology and technological inventions is well-founded in law, the development of confidential Artificial Intelligence models can invoke a multitude of legal and ethical considerations. AI arose to prominence as a self-thinking alternative to existing operational and coding processes, which must warrant some level of trade secret protection. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence systems must be sufficiently public to allow the continuing oversight of these technologies and systems by trusted, capable, and just human decisionmakers.

AI implementation and use throughout the world and spanning through most-all industries bring many common questions to mind. At the forefront: how AI will fit in with existing business operations? In 2025, we have watch AI used to assist professionals with their workloads and reach new heights. We have also watched AI be implemented in a manner that demands more work from the professionals asking too much of the technology. Participation in open, public discussion in bar associations and other professional associations throughout industries remains highly pertinent to the implementation and application of Artificial Intelligence in the right way. My colleagues at the California Lawyers Association are very much up to the task and ready to begin outlining the issues that businesses are currently facing, while already working with clients across the world to develop strategies to plan to account for new forms of liability, ensure humans are always put first, and be sure justice continues to prevail.

Authored by Maxx Sharp of Sharp Law APC. Those interested in continuing the conversation may contact Maxx at Maxx@sharplawapc.com or (714) 454-4642.