Jeffrey Gifford, a corporate lawyer at Dykema, has become an unlikely bouncer. When he sees an AI note taker pop up before virtual meetings, he kicks it out. "Everybody and their mother is using these things," he said. Executives, boards, and businesspeople have embraced AI transcription as the latest productivity hack. But to lawyers like Gifford, these tools introduce a legal time bomb.

AI-generated transcripts preserve everything—offhand comments, quickly corrected statements, and jokes—that humans would rarely write in meeting minutes. In lawsuits or investigations, that can make every word discoverable. Recording every word of a board meeting, no matter how tangential, could be legally perilous. The NYC Bar Association urged lawyers to consider whether recording is "tactically well advised."

Worse, sharing meetings with AI bots may void attorney-client privilege. Companies making these tools may access transcripts and data. In February, Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that Claude-generated transcripts weren't protected by privilege. Clients, especially public companies, have largely heeded the warnings—those who've gotten the word aren't doing it, or aren't fessing up. Doug Raymond, a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, said his clients initially loved the convenience but quickly realized it's a bad idea when every casual remark becomes potential evidence.