OpenAI’s New Rules Limit Legal Guidance—Here’s How to Get Real Answers

That means if you’ve been using AI tools like ChatGPT to help draft agreements, answer legal questions, or get advice, you’ll start seeing more refusals or limited answers. OpenAI’s update isn’t a glitch—it’s a move to stay compliant with regulations and reduce liability for unauthorized legal advice.

For small business owners, this policy shift highlights a growing reality: AI can accelerate your work, but it can’t replace a licensed professional when real legal guidance is needed. Understanding where those boundaries lie will help you use AI responsibly—and avoid costly mistakes.

What This Change Means for Your Business

1. You Can Still Use AI—Just Not for Personalized Legal Advice

AI tools remain powerful for brainstorming, writing marketing content, and explaining general business concepts. For instance, you can ask AI to “brainstorm social media posts for Small Business Saturday”, “how to build a pricing margin to prepare for future sales promotions”, or “write a thank you response to a review of your business.”

But under OpenAI’s new rules, you can’t rely on the tool to interpret, draft or review a contract or tell you how a clause affects your legal rights. In other words, generic AI can help you with a lot of things, just not law (along with a handful of other topics)

2. Relying on AI Alone Could Create Risks

You probably don’t want to rely on ChatGPT to interpret, draft or modify legal documents anyway. With multiple stories about AI-drafted legal contracts and documents making headlines, it's well known that trusting generic AI that is prone to hallucinations can have major consequences. AIs like Gemini and ChatGTP are trained on data from every corner of the web, from reputable news sites to conspiracy theory blogs, fiction and non-fiction alike, and content in every country (and legal system). 

That means its advice is informed by everything and anyone — it’s best to get legal advice from legal experts in the US legal system and legal information that was vetted by these experts so you don’t end up in trouble. 

For instance, in the case Mata v. Avianca, Inc., a plaintiff’s attorney used ChatGPT to help draft a legal motion—and the AI generated non-existent case citations to support their argument. The court found the brief referenced several fake precedents, so the case was dismissed and the attorneys were fined for submitting what amounted to fabricated authority.

If you do trust generic (non-legal trained) AI tools to handle your legal tasks and questions, you could end up with contracts that aren’t enforceable or filings that don’t meet state or federal requirements. And if a dispute ever arises, “AI told me so” won’t protect you in court. 

That’s why this change serves as a useful reminder: when decisions affect your company’s legal standing, licensed professionals are the only reliable—and legally safe—option.

3. Get legal information from Rocket Copilot — an AI trained exclusively by licensed legal experts — then get quick help when it’s time to call in a human expert

The good news is that AI can still make the legal process faster and easier—if used the right way. Rocket Copilot is a free AI-powered business solution, backed by Legal Pros, that blends AI’s speed with the expertise of real lawyers and paralegals with experience in the US legal system. If your questions require professional judgement, Rocket Copilot connects you directly to real Legal Pros.

That means you can keep using AI to streamline your operations—without crossing compliance lines or risking inaccurate advice.

Questions SMBs Should Ask About AI And Legal Advice

Before using generic AI for business paperwork, take a moment to clarify what it can and can’t do for you:

• Is my question considered “legal advice”? Am I asking AI to explain how a law applies to my specific situation?
• What is my risk tolerance if something from a generic AI turns out incorrect? Where am I least tolerant of risk and will want to talk to an expert?
• What’s my safety net if AI guidance is wrong? Do I use something that can easily escalate me to a real person when needed?
• Can I still use AI to answer questions and draft legal documents? Yes—but am I using an AI tool trained only on US-specific legal information from legal experts?

What to Do Next

It’s probably a good thing if OpenAI’s new policy has you rethinking your approach to AI. Here’s how to move forward safely and confidently:

1. Only use generic AI tools for non-legal matters, like communication and marketing efficiency.
2. For legal information, use an AI tool trained on proprietary legal expertise, created and vetted by Legal Pros. Try Rocket Copilot for a compliant AI experience that can seamlessly escalate complex questions to licensed experts.
3. Rely on Rocket Lawyer Legal Pros to share information or review contracts; you can also retain a network attorney for legal advice.
4. Always keep a record of any AI-generated work and verify its accuracy before acting on it.

AI can be a powerful business ally—but it works best alongside real human expertise. Use smart tools, ask smart questions, and let licensed professionals guide the decisions that matter most.