[author: Kevin Vermeulen]
If you haven’t tried ChatGPT yet, you’re missing out! It’s a powerful tool that can be used to save time across a variety of tasks. Is content creation one of the things that ChatGPT is useful for? While some people suggest using AI tools to write web content, most experts recommend against it. In this blog, I’m breaking down what you need to know about using ChatGPT for creating your law firm’s website content.
The Risks of Using ChatGPT for Web Content
ChatGPT and similar AI tools are extremely valuable if you’re looking to work smarter rather than harder. That being said, using these types of platforms does have a downside. Here are the key risks associated with using ChatGPT to create web content.
- ChatGPT can be wrong – and often is. One of the main problems with AI tools is the confidence with which they display incorrect information. Though the tools will always generate a response, you might not get accurate information. That would never be a great thing, but it’s especially troublesome for the legal industry. People searching for legal content must be able to rely on the truthfulness and accuracy of the information they find. ChatGPT relies on patterns in its existing training data, which can fall out of date (or be based on information that wasn’t correct in the first place). Proceed with caution when leveraging AI tools for information that you present as factual.
- AI tools are short on creativity and depth – ChatGPT cannot produce original ideas or content; it can only leverage information that’s already out there. Even if you are super careful about the prompts you enter, what you get back is unlikely to be as engaging as what a human would write. Furthermore, you can’t expect such a tool to match your brand voice or be consistent with what you’ve already published. Readers who follow your blog or normally read your content are likely to recognize a different tone. AI-generated content lacks emotion and won’t be able to humanize your firm’s brand.
- Who owns AI content? Since we know that ChatGPT gets its information from the training data it has access to, there’s no good way to know where the information really comes from. The content it supplies exists somewhere else on the web – but you have no way to cite the original publisher. That also means that if you prompt ChatGPT with “Write a blog article about 5 steps for filing unemployment claims”, what is returned will have been published elsewhere – maybe even by a competing firm. So, who would own that content? You wouldn’t just go to another firm’s blog and copy their content, but ChatGPT isn’t all that different.
- ChatGPT content can reflect biases – There can always be inherent biases present in the training data AI tools use. As of right now, we don’t really know the source of all ChatGPT data and how it’s reviewed for biases. We don’t know if information has been fact-checked or how. Information could exhibit stereotypes or make assumptions that make people uncomfortable. This could lead to all sorts of issues that you don’t want to deal with.
- Information can’t be verified due to a lack of crawling – ChatGPT cannot crawl the web like a search engine. Unlike traditional search engine results, ChatGPT is based on a current database and can’t “look around” for new information. That means content may not be up to date on the latest laws, regulations, rulings, or other important legal matters. Again, this is particularly troublesome for anyone offering legal insights. You’re much better off relying on the specialized expertise of your team, even though it takes more time.
Related: The Law Firm Guide to Content Marketing
Your Website Deserves Better Than Generic AI Content
Your website isn’t just a digital brochure—it’s your most important business development tool. The words on your site should reflect your firm’s expertise, speak directly to your ideal client, and guide visitors toward taking action.
That’s why using ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate web copy is particularly risky. Beyond the issues of inaccuracy, lack of originality, and brand inconsistency, AI-generated content often misses the mark on search engine optimization (SEO), user experience, and conversion best practices. In a competitive legal market, that’s a risk your firm can’t afford to take.
At Good2bSocial, the digital marketing division of Best Lawyers®, we specialize in building high-performing legal websites that don’t just look good—they drive measurable results. Our human experts ensure your content is aligned with your brand voice, optimized for search, and strategically crafted to convert visitors into clients.
While we don’t recommend using ChatGPT to write your law firm’s website content from scratch, that doesn’t mean AI tools have no place in your marketing workflow. When used thoughtfully, they can support your content creation process without compromising quality or credibility.
Here are a few ways law firms can leverage ChatGPT strategically:
Brainstorming Content Ideas
If you’re stuck on what to write about, ChatGPT can help you quickly generate blog topic ideas based on your practice areas or common client questions.
Creating First Drafts for Internal Content
ChatGPT can assist in drafting internal documents, social media captions, or outlines for longer-form content that a human will then refine and edit.
Summarizing Complex Legal Topics
AI can be useful for distilling large amounts of information into simpler summaries—as long as a legal professional reviews and verifies accuracy before publishing.
Repackaging Content for Different Channels
Repurpose your existing content into email copy, meta descriptions, or content snippets for platforms like LinkedIn by using AI to speed up formatting and ideation.
Grammar and Clarity Checks
Tools like ChatGPT or Grammarly can help clean up grammar and improve sentence clarity during the editing phase.
Pro Tip: Always treat AI-generated content as a starting point, not the final product. Human insight, legal accuracy, and emotional intelligence are still irreplaceable—especially in an industry built on trust.
Takeaway:
There are many great use cases for ChatGPT, but creating web content isn’t one of them. In fact, doing so can actually hurt your brand if the information you share is inaccurate, out of date, or just plain unengaging. Remember, part of the appeal of original content is to connect with your audience at a more human level. Relying on technology may have the opposite effect.
