AI Outlook 2025: Celebrating Client Innovation and Exploring Future Trends

Celebrating Client Innovation and Exploring Future Trends

Artificial intelligence—AI—continues to make headlines, both in the U.S. and around the globe. 

In 2024, we saw explosive technological advancement in AI and automation, accompanied by dynamic implementation of AI in nearly every sector, from media, advertising, entertainment and sports, financial services, and retail to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health and wellness, and health care. This AI boom continues to prompt growing concerns about privacy and data use, increased focus on regulatory and legislative oversight, and the escalation of lawsuits involving intellectual property issues of first impression, many of which are now making their way through the courts. 

Across industries, Loeb lawyers are advising clients on business opportunities and legal challenges posed by AI and automation. Our AI Industry Group brings together practitioners from nearly every discipline at the firm, from corporate, technology and regulatory counseling to advertising and privacy.

In our AI Update 2025, we’re pleased to spotlight some of our AI-related representations from 2024, spanning a broad range of clients and industries, as well as share our predictions for what 2025 will bring.

If you’d like to stay informed and ahead of the constantly evolving legal and business developments in AI, we also invite you to sign up for Loeb & Loeb’s weekly AI News Round-Up (click here and select your areas of interest).

Some of Our Recent AI Representations

• Represented Eleven Labs, a software company that specializes in developing natural-sounding speech synthesis software using deep learning, in connection with privacy and AI governance matters, intellectual property matters related to existing copyright laws and proposed legislation in the U.S. and EU impacting companies leveraging generative AI, and matters involving licensing the voices of voice actors. 
• Represented a global pharmaceutical company on compliance with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.
• Represented numerous companies in connection with developing AI policies, reviewing processes, developing AI contract language and conducting AI training for internal teams.
• Represented Raspect Intelligence Inspection Limited, a Hong Kong-based software development company, on AI-powered inspections in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Australia. 
• Represented a television personality in connection with a patentability search and prosecution work related to computer software for providing virtual coaching and/or teaching services using artificial intelligence.
• Represented the Museum of Modern Art on business opportunities related to the use of generative AI.
• Represented Audioboom in connection with the negotiation of a license for AI training.
• Represented Coalition Inc. concerning a patent application for an AI-based system to determine risks to networks. The company is the first to provide “active insurance” that combines comprehensive insurance coverage and cybersecurity tools designed to help businesses manage and mitigate digital and cyber risks.
• Represented a client in connection with the licensing of its archive of news content to an AI company for the purpose of training the company’s AI models.

Our 2025 Outlook

• In the coming year, we expect AI agents to become increasingly prominent, with discussions likely focusing on the growth and integration of automated decision-making tools. As these technologies evolve, AI agents will play a crucial role in enhancing internal processes and providing seamless customer-facing assistance, driving greater efficiency and innovation across industries.
• Brands continue to grapple with the true cost/benefit of using AI to develop advertising. Certainly some are finding real value in the fast and inexpensive way that advertising content can be created. Others are struggling with how this type of content is viewed by the general public, as well as the impact that it has on the advertising community as a whole. As AI- generated content becomes better and better, and cheaper and cheaper, we expect AI engagement in the advertising industry to deepen.
• As it relates to entertainment and media, we expect AI’s impact on intellectual property to continue to accelerate in 2025. We expect to see courts weigh in on whether training AI using copyrighted works constitutes fair use, more right-of-publicity legislation at the state and possibly federal levels addressing the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deep fakes, and content creators continuing to integrate AI technologies into their creative and content enforcement processes.
• Drug and device manufacturers will likely continue to leverage AI capabilities to develop new products, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works to keep pace by adding to its already-expansive list of AI-focused guidance documents and regulatory frameworks, such as the January 2025 guidance. In particular, 2025 will bring an expanded industry focus on use of AI models not only for operational efficiencies or in drug discovery but also to generate data to support the safety or effectiveness of products for the purposes of FDA-approval decisions (e.g., generation of large data sets from diverse sources, analysis of adverse event data and use of predictive modeling for pharmacokinetics, among others). Yet, as the FDA continues to assess AI models and as health care providers increasingly incorporate AI into diagnostics and clinical decisions, we anticipate additional scrutiny from regulators, providers and patients as to whether AI models can deliver on the promises to more effectively and efficiently prevent and treat a range of health conditions and improve patient outcomes.
• AI will continue to be a very important issue for both employers and employees as use of AI technology becomes more common in the workplace. We expect that employers will be focused on ensuring that employees disclose their use of AI and that the work does not infringe on others’ rights. Employees remain concerned about being replaced by AI technology or being forced to use it despite their discomfort. On the guild and union fronts, the AI provisions that were negotiated during the industrywide negotiations are being implemented and enforced. As a result, signatory producers are likely to get more grievance and arbitration claims if they are using AI in ways that the guilds and unions believe violate their collective bargaining agreements.
• Across industries, we expect to continue to see clients and advisors using AI in deal sourcing to identify potential acquisition targets and potential buyers. In 2025, we also anticipate seeing increased use of AI products in due diligence matters.
• With a potential shift toward deregulation and a focus on innovation with AI, it’s unlikely that we will see a U.S. privacy-focused AI bill. There may be legislation aimed at supporting the use of AI to drive innovation, however. At the intersection of targeted advertising and privacy, states may consider regulating what they classify as high-risk activities involving AI. We’ve seen this already in California, and other states may follow. Even if targeted advertising isn’t explicitly referenced, states may identify high-risk activities such as the use of sensitive information, including health data or precise geolocation information.