Karen Holden of Allin1 Advisory: AI contracts still need human judgement

Growing a business takes more than funding

Investment may be the obvious obstacle to growth, but Karen Holden sees a wider set of challenges behind it. Hiring people, retaining talent, understanding legal documents and finding the right advisers all shape whether a founder can move forward.

Karen is the founder and managing director of Allin1 Advisory. In our interview, she describes supporting founders from starting and scaling a business through investment, overseas expansion and acquisitions. The firm’s website sets out its work across commercial contracts, employment and corporate transactions.

An AI-generated contract still needs judgement

AI is where Karen sees both opportunity and avoidable problems. She describes people entering confidential information into AI tools, relying on inaccurate outputs and assuming they can produce their own contracts without understanding what those documents mean for their business.

Her concern is not simply that a system can make a mistake. It is that the person using it may stop critically examining the result. A document that looks complete can still be unsuitable, and correcting it can create more work.

There is relevant regulatory context here. In its 17 August 2026 warning notice on AI misuse, the Solicitors Regulation Authority identifies inaccurate outputs and risks to client confidentiality. It says firms need appropriate contractual, technical and organisational safeguards before entering client information into AI systems. That guidance concerns regulated legal practice; it supports the importance of careful information handling without making every use of AI the same legal situation.

Keep the human expertise in the process

In the full interview, Karen advocates a hybrid approach: learning how to use the tool while recognising the value of lawyers, tax advisers and other specialists. Generating a document and judging whether it is accurate, genuine and right for the situation are different tasks.

She can see AI reducing administration and helping businesses operate more profitably. Alongside those possibilities, she wants attention paid to trainees, mentoring, wellbeing and the people who help others understand business risks.

That is the more interesting tension in her story. A technology-focused legal business is making the case for human involvement. The useful question is not just what AI can produce, but who will understand it, challenge it and take responsibility for using it.