Client confidentiality and AI tools
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Client confidentiality and AI tools come down to who processes client information and on what terms. A local AI server keeps that processing on hardware the firm controls. Whether the firm meets its duties depends on its own processes. Not legal advice.
Olares One → Private AI for law firms → Document Q&A · drafting · local models → Client data stays in the firm
Who processes client information in an AI tool?
Whenever a lawyer puts client information into an AI tool, someone processes it. With a cloud tool, that is the vendor, under the vendor's terms. With a local server, it is the firm's own machine. That difference shapes every other confidentiality question a firm asks about AI.
This page is general information and not legal advice. Professional rules differ by jurisdiction and change over time. Read your bar's or regulator's current guidance on AI, and ask an ethics or data-protection adviser about your firm's facts.
What do lawyers ask about client confidentiality and AI tools?
Lawyers commonly ask the same questions of any AI tool: who can see what they enter, where it is stored, whether it trains a model, how long it is kept and who in the firm can see another lawyer's prompts. We think a firm should have written answers before client data goes in.
For a cloud product, the vendor's contract and documentation answer most of these. For a local server, the firm answers them through its own setup and policy, which means more work and more control. Write the answers down for each approved tool, so a lawyer can find them when a client asks.
What does a local AI server change?
A local AI server changes who processes client documents. On Olares One the models run on the box, and according to Olares' FAQ it can work entirely offline after a one-time activation, so no AI provider receives client documents for processing. It also moves security duties onto the firm.
The firm secures the box physically, controls who has accounts, decides on remote access and keeps backups, which Olares OS encrypts. Olares' FAQ says the file system does not use full-disk encryption by default, so ask Olares about encryption at rest and keep the box in a locked space.
What practical steps follow?
The practical steps start with reading your regulator's guidance on AI tools. Then decide which matters and document types may go into AI, give each person an account with limited admin rights, keep the box on the office network unless policy allows remote access, and write all of it down.
The written version belongs in a firm AI policy. For the data flows that remain, see how to use AI without sending client data to the cloud.
Questions & answers
Does using local AI meet a lawyer's duty of confidentiality?
A device cannot meet a duty for you. Local AI keeps processing on hardware the firm controls, which simplifies some questions. Whether the firm meets its duties depends on its processes and its regulator's guidance.
Should we tell clients we use AI?
That depends on your jurisdiction's rules and your engagement terms. Check your bar's guidance and set one approach for the whole firm in your AI policy.
Sources for this entry
- Olares One FAQ (Olares docs) (Company-published)
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Cite this entry
Best Private AI for Lawyers. “Client confidentiality and AI tools.” Content reviewed 13 November 2026.
https://bestprivateaiforlawyers.com/client-confidentiality-and-ai/