The UK AI Industry Association is set to launch a legal working group next month, with Ashurst and Shoosmiths confirmed as inaugural members. The trade body, chaired by former UBS head of legal Fiona Phillips, will be announcing the full list of participating organisations in the next week.
UKAI was set up last year to represent businesses in the AI sector and shape dialogue with Government, helping to ensure that the UK is at the forefront of change. In June, for example, UKAI co-founder Ben Howlett met with UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer at the Welsh Labour Conference to discuss some of the body’s key priorities.
UKAI has been shaping the legal working group over the past few months, and the first full meeting will take place in August.
The group was created in response to growing demand from across UKAI’s membership, with legal expertise required when it comes to questions around explainability, transparency, liability in multi-party deployments and governance.
In addition to law firms, the working group will bring together general counsel from across sectors including finance, media, infrastructure, life sciences, and fast-scaling AI-native companies.
A UKAI spokesperson told Legal IT Insider that the senior, practitioner-led group will lead a stream of activity shaped around what members need. This includes roundtables, fireside discussions, co-authored guidance documents, case studies, whitepapers, and deep-dive working sessions. All of this will be member-driven and focused on tangible outcomes. Members will also help guide external engagement with regulators, policy stakeholders, and industry leaders, ensuring the legal voice is both visible and influential in the national AI conversation.
Ashurst has positioned itself as one of the firms at the forefront of GenAI adoption with moves such as the early global adoption of Harvey. It was among a small number of early adopter law firms to develop Harvey’s Workflow Builder, out in June.
Shoosmiths, meanwhile, has long had a leading tech practice and was one of the early firms to trial Microsoft Copilot in 2023. In April this year it garnered widespread media attention by announcing an unusual ‘AI target’ of one million Microsoft Copilot prompts to unlock a £1m bonus pot for staff.
“The fast-moving world of AI demands thoughtful, forward-looking frameworks to drive responsible innovation”, said Fiona Ghosh, partner and AI Legal Advisory lead EMEA at Ashurst. “As a founding law firm member of UKAI’s legal working group, we’re proud to be championing our clients’ interests – and those of the wider legal community – as AI policy and regulation take shape.”