The Community Legal Centres Australia AI Pilot Project (the pilot) is exploring how artificial intelligence can support the community legal sector to deliver services more efficiently, strengthen organisational capability, and improve access to justice. To do this, we’re leading a national pilot program to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can be safely, ethically and effectively used within community legal centres. The purpose of the pilot is not to prove that AI should be adopted, but to determine where it may be useful, where caution is required, and what good practice looks like within a community legal setting.

About the pilot

The pilot is an eighteen-month initiative that will:

• Work with a select group of community legal centres to test AI technologies in community legal service settings;
• Evaluate where AI delivers meaningful value and where it does not;
• Identify risks, challenges and mitigation strategies;
• Develop sector-specific governance and ethical frameworks;
• Build practical knowledge and capability across participating centres;
• Generate evidence to support future sector decision-making.

The pilot will provide an opportunity for the sector to learn from practical experience rather than assumption, ensuring that any future use of AI is informed by evidence and guided by community legal sector values.

Why a pilot?

AI technologies are developing rapidly and are already being adopted across the legal sector. While these technologies may offer opportunities to improve efficiency and support service delivery, they also raise important questions about privacy, confidentiality, professional obligations, accuracy and client trust.

Before considering broader adoption, the community legal sector needs reliable evidence about:

• What works in a community legal centre environment;
• What risks need to be managed;
• Where AI can provide genuine value;
• What safeguards should be in place;
• What support staff require to use AI responsibly.

This pilot has been established to answer these questions and create an evidence base that can contribute to future sector decisions.

What the pilot will test

The pilot will explore a range of potential applications for AI within community legal centres, including considering where AI could assist and improve operational, administrative and/or service delivery functions.

Through structured testing and evaluation, the pilot will seek to understand:

• Which use cases provide the greatest benefit
• The impact of AI on workflows and efficiency
• Staff experiences and confidence levels
• Governance and risk management requirements
• Barriers to adoption
• Lessons that can be shared across the sector

Pilot outcomes

By the conclusion of the pilot, CLCs Australia aims to deliver:

Evidence and insights

Findings about the practical benefits, limitations and risks of ai within community legal centres.

Governance and ethics frameworks

Sector-specific guidance to support safe, responsible and ethical use of ai technologies.

Sector resources

Practical tools, guides and implementation resources informed by lessons from the pilot

Increased capability

Improved AI literacy and understanding across participating organisations and the broader sector

Recommendations for the future

Evidence-based recommendations to help inform future sector approaches to AI

Participating community legal centres

The pilot will involve a selected group of community legal centres representing different service models, communities and operational contexts. More information about the selection process will be shared as it becomes available.

Guiding principles

The project will be guided by a set of principles being developed by Community Legal Centres Australia and the AI Pilot Advisory Group for review and approval by the Community Legal Centres Australia Board. The principles are currently in draft form and will be finalised shortly.

Learning together

A key objective of the pilot is to create opportunities for shared learning across the sector.

Through participating centres, an AI Champions Network, training activities and project updates, the pilot will promote collaboration and knowledge sharing to help build sector-wide capability and understanding.