AI in Personal Injury Claims – Opportunities and Responsibilities

AI is rapidly making its way into almost every business sector, with the promise of transforming industries from finance and healthcare to accountancy and insurance. Some see it as a revolution, whilst others as an incremental enabler. Either way, its influence in business and society as a whole is growing exponentially.

While most sectors are exploring how AI can augment their operations, personal injury law firms can be especially well placed to benefit. At its heart, personal injury law is a knowledge business – built on process, rigour and the ability to extract meaning from vast amounts of structured and unstructured data – precisely the kind of environment in which AI can thrive.

Every PI claim, regardless of complexity, hinges on gathering, interpreting and applying information, whether that’s factual evidence, medical opinion or procedural rules, to progress towards a fair outcome for the injured client.

At Minster Law, we handle huge volumes of both structured and unstructured data, creating an environment where AI can deliver meaningful impact by classifying documents, extracting insights and surfacing critical information faster and more consistently than manual processes alone.

Moreover, the sheer quantity and quality of claims data held by large PI firms creates opportunities beyond off-the-shelf models. Fine-tuning AI tools on proprietary data sets and drawing on historic outcomes and case strategies can deliver models better aligned to real-life PI practice, enhancing decision-making, operational performance and ultimately customer outcomes.

The immediate potential of AI in personal injury claims is both clear and practical. AI tools are already capable of rapidly summarising medical reports, highlighting key clinical data points to support liability decisions, treatment planning or negotiations. Intelligent triage systems can flag vulnerable claimants earlier in the process, ensuring tailored support and compliance with duty-of-care obligations. Predictive models can analyse historic data to estimate the likely progression of a claim – whether it will settle quickly, require litigation or benefit from alternative dispute resolution – enabling lawyers to proactively shape strategy and manage client expectations with greater confidence.

These aren’t distant possibilities; they are already improving efficiency, quality and service delivery in progressive legal markets overseas, and the UK is catching up.

Yet with opportunity comes responsibility. AI is not infallible, and its outputs are only as reliable as the data, context and oversight surrounding them. A recent high-profile US case saw a lawyer sanctioned for citing legal precedents invented by an AI tool – a stark reminder of the risk of so-called hallucinations, where models produce plausible fabrications that appear credible but are ultimately incorrect.

But these concerns aren’t limited to legal practitioners, they now extend to the courts themselves, with updated judicial guidance issued by the senior judiciary on the use of artificial intelligence in court settings. Replacing earlier guidance published only months before, this reflects how quickly the technology is advancing and how legal frameworks must evolve in step.

For personal injury firms, and the courts within which we operate, the implications are clear. Claims involve people at vulnerable moments in their lives and decisions can have lasting impacts on recovery, financial security and wellbeing. Ensuring AI outputs are accurate, fair, grounded in professional judgement and rigorously checked is non-negotiable.

Equally important is maintaining the human empathy and judgement at the core of legal practice, so technology enhances rather than erodes the trust placed in lawyers by clients, courts and business partners.

There is, however, a tension to navigate. Ironically, the very things that make personal injury firms prime for AI adoption – rigour, process, and structured practice – can also slow adoption. Firms grounded in traditional operating models may favour incremental change, even as client expectations and technology trends shift rapidly around them.

Success with existing methods can make it difficult to embrace new ones, even when those new methods hold the key to delivering better outcomes. Navigating this tension requires thoughtful leadership, a willingness to test and learn and a clear focus on ensuring that innovation serves the purpose of better supporting customers, colleagues and business partners.

Looking ahead, AI’s capabilities are likely to continue to evolve beyond standalone tools towards more integrated support. We may see AI co-pilots embedded directly within case management systems, offering real-time recommendations on evidence, strategy, or timing. There is also emerging exploration of integrating AI into negotiations, with models able to simulate scenarios and suggest approaches to achieve fair and efficient outcomes.

These developments won’t replace professional judgement – but they will enhance it, freeing lawyers to focus more on strategy, advocacy and the human conversations that are the foundations of trust, confidence and reassurance in personal injury legal services.

At Minster, AI isn’t about the blind pursuit of technology for commercial advantage. It’s about delivering better outcomes for our customers at vulnerable moments, for our business partners seeking confidence in the quality of our claims handling and for our colleagues who deserve to focus on the work that truly benefits from their valued skill, care and expertise.

This technology will inevitably change how we work. But it’s how we choose to use it – to serve better, care deeper and achieve outcomes that matter – that will ultimately define who and what we are as a profession.