A leading expert in employment law believes AI is having both a positive and negative impact on tribunals up and down the country.
It comes as government data, released earlier this month, found a steep rise in the number of single case claims being brought before employment tribunals.
These figures, partnered with the October 1st changes doubling tribunal time limits as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025, highlight the strain the system is under.
Senior Associate at Knights, Sarah Burke, has been highlighting the pros and cons of how artificial intelligence is being used by practitioners, respondents and claimants.
She says you’ve got to look at the state of employment tribunals more generally before coming to a conclusion:
“I think it's fair to say that employment tribunals are experiencing significant strain and that’s not just to do with AI - but lots of things, including an increase in volume of claims. I think we’re still feeling the impact of Covid and the lack of judges currently on the circuit so it’s only natural that people are leaning on AI to support – it’s a challenging time.
“However, it’s very apparent how the rise of AI use by claimants has inevitably led to more claims, more correspondence and bigger workloads. I believe this will only increase once the changes around unfair dismissal as part of the Employment Rights Act come into play next year as AI is giving people better access to perceived justice.
“Currently, I would say AI is predominantly being used by claimants due to its immediate integration into our everyday lives. It’s on our phones, computers and is there and ready to use – so why wouldn’t you make the most of it?
“When it comes to employment tribunals, a lot of claimants have lost their job so don’t necessarily have the finances available to go and get legal advice. With ACAS under strain too, more and more people are turning to AI models to get them through the first stages of accessing justice – even if that’s just understanding whether they have a claim or not.
“We’ve also seen quite a lot of claimants using AI to draft claim forms and in general correspondence. As a result, you’re seeing a real increase in response times from claimants which is piling even more pressure on tribunals as the turnaround time between certain stages is shorter.
“A really good example that we’ve seen recently involves some presidential guidance we received for employment tribunals around interim relief applications – for instances where someone has been dismissed for whistleblowing for example. Previously, statistics suggest tribunals were receiving around 20 applications every year but that’s now moved to 20 per tribunal, per month – so the uptick is massive. For context, interim relief applications are very difficult to win but, with AI being the people pleaser it is, it is regularly suggesting it as a viable option for claimants.
“From a personal perspective, I think AI is a really useful tool with huge benefits but it’s so important that it is used carefully.
“It can be a very efficient way of working and offers access to justice for people who might have otherwise walked away from a potential claim. It’s also a very efficient way of working if it gets things right and the time and cost savings can be huge as a result – especially when you’ve got giant data sets to work through.
“However, as with anything, it comes with its challenges and the main one is that AI has a real desire to give people what they want – regardless of whether it’s possible or not. From an employment perspective, that can be really lengthy and complex documents that no one can understand or highlight irrelevant facts or claims as examples for why a claimant has a case.
“If you’re not legally trained then these AI hallucinations can trip you up and cause wider issues for tribunals. I think there’s a huge risk to AI and an over-reliance on it can be quite dangerous. For instance, I have heard examples of where claimants have struggled to know how to respond to a judge or respondent because they have been relying too much on AI. These circumstances have led to adjournments and delays, so it really does hamper the ability for a tribunal to progress in a timely fashion.
“We’ve also seen examples of where AI has prepared such a lengthy and cumbersome response that its actually buried a real claim or issue and meant that parties have disengaged from the 100s of pages of issues they receive. This doesn’t provide access to justice and does the opposite and means an individual may lose a genuine claim.
“There’s also the issue around confidentiality and how inputting certain data into open-source AI platforms risk putting individuals in hot water.
“Just to conclude, I’d be advising people to not be afraid to use AI to support them but to approach it very carefully. Don’t always trust the information that it’s giving you and make sure you back up what’s being said with your own, independent research. It’s a valuable tool but don’t put all your eggs into the AI basket as it’s vital you put the information under scrutiny.”