'Barrage of AI-generated claims' as UK rule being scrapped

HR professionals have warned that the legal system is being put under impossible pressure by the sheer volume of AI-generated tribunal claims, and say "the genuine claims, where AI is empowering people, are being lost in the noise of people looking for a quick £5-10k payday". They say even robust dismissals are now fraught with risk, given that "AI has become a low-cost barrister".

Kate Underwood, founder of Southampton-based Kate Underwood HR and Training, said: "The UK's small businesses are facing a tsunami of AI-generated claims. Many are legitimate, but many are not.

"The amount of Employment Tribunal claims coming in at the moment is crazy and, reading them, they often have little or no merit and are hiding the genuine claims that need to be heard. HRs like me are seeing this most days now. For years, what stopped a dodgy sacking turning into a tribunal claim was money. You needed a few hundred quid and a solicitor willing to take it on. Not any more.

"AI has become a low-cost barrister and will draft the whole claim for free, in an afternoon, and from January the law scraps the two-year service rule, too. It's not the big boys with lawyers on speed dial who will get swept away by the surge in AI-generated claims. It's the five-person firm, the care home and the shop that's been winging dismissals on gut feel and crossed fingers."

Kelly Smallcombe, fractional chief people officer at Meliorem HR Consultancy, agreed that AI can be a powerful tool for people who have a genuine claim, but said the problem is the sheer volume of speculative claims.

She added: "AI is doing exactly what it should: giving people information to bring genuine claims. The problem is that the information is often wrong, and the tribunal system was never built to sift good claims from bad.

"Day one rights plus AI-armed claimants is a combustible mix. Genuine cases are being pushed back years while the system absorbs speculative ones.

"For small employers with no legal budget, that delay is not an inconvenience, it is existential. The real question is whether costs awards start rising to check this, or whether tribunals simply learn to live with the noise. What they actually need is a faster triage step, one that separates substance from padding before the system breaks under the weight of it."

Harvey Dhillon, founder of Zmartly, an accountancy firm for small businesses, said AI-generated claims could prove costly for employers not just in terms of money, where cash flow is often tight, but time. In the age of AI, he urged companies to "do probation reviews and keep contracts current".

At a time when machines that never sleep are writing the legal case against a small business, Kate Underwood encouraged firms "to bullet-proof their employment contracts, and fast", as well as to have a full audit trail of every conversation and a clear reason as to why they let someone go, in plain English.

She continued: "The genuine claims, where AI is empowering people, are being lost in the noise of people looking for a quick £5-10k payday, which is tax-free. They know that employers generally can’t risk going to court without a solicitor, which costs money, and immediately have leverage. The legal system simply isn’t prepared for the number of claims now landing.”