The Legal Services Board Says That, Unlike Sectors Such as Healthcare, Legal Services Have No Dedicated Product-Level Regulation for AI

The Legal Services Board calls itself "the independent oversight regulator of legal services in England and Wales". In June 2026 it published its plans for enabling safe, AI-driven innovation in legal services for 2026-27. The plan says its work to encourage the effective adoption of AI focuses on three areas where the board is best placed to add value: coordination, clarity and confidence. It also describes the regulatory framework that AI in legal services sits within. Parts of the plan follow, not the whole.

Existing Rules, Applied by the Front-Line Regulators

Under clarity, the plan says legal services "sit within a statutory regulatory framework that predates modern AI," and that "Unlike sectors such as healthcare, there is no dedicated product-level regulation for AI."

Instead, it says, the front-line legal services regulators are responsible for applying existing professional and conduct rules to new technologies, "which can create uncertainty if expectations in how to apply those in the context of AI are unclear." Those regulators and the representative bodies are best placed to give firms and legal professionals that practical clarity, the plan says, with the board providing coordination and clarity so that safe AI adoption can be accelerated.

For a firm, the plain reading is that the conduct rules it already answers to are the rules for its use of AI, applied by its own regulator. The uncertainty the board names sits in how those rules apply, not in whether they do.

Coordination, Clarity and Confidence

Under coordination, the board says it has established an Innovation and Technology Forum that brings front-line regulators together to share insights, hear directly from lawtech providers and address common challenges in AI adoption. It also brought officials of the Department for Business and Trade together with the front-line regulators and their representative bodies on the Made Smarter Adoption Programme for legal services providers, an engagement the plan says "secured targeted changes to eligibility criteria, improving access for parts of the regulated community, including smaller providers."

Under clarity, it says it issues statutory guidance to support regulators in promoting the use of technology and innovation to improve access to justice, "while managing risks to consumers and the public interest". This year it will launch a technology and innovation survey, which it says will give insight into the impact of that guidance. It also responds to questions from lawtech firms and innovators developing products, and works with government departments, alongside the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, on an AI Growth Lab focused on legal services.

Under confidence, the plan turns to consumers. That work matters more, it says, as more consumers turn directly to AI tools and chatbots for help with legal issues, "outside of traditional regulated advice." The board says it has just completed a review of existing standards, and is assessing the feasibility of standards "for AI-powered tools operating outside the regulated legal services framework".

Constraints and Missing Evidence

The plan says regulators' ability to fully deliver at scale is constrained by three broad factors: limited funding ringfenced for regulators, access to specialist expertise, and the ability to coordinate across regulators from multiple sectors.

On evidence, it says: "While there are indications that consumers are increasingly using AI chatbots to navigate legal issues, we are not aware of longitudinal evidence tracking how this use evolves over time or how consumers move between unregulated tools, advice services and regulated providers." The board says it would welcome support from the Ministry of Justice to explore developing that evidence.

What will the board's technology and innovation survey find about the impact of its guidance?