KUALA LUMPUR: Professionals must remain responsible for decisions made with the help of artificial intelligence, as its growing use could have consequences for legal liability and insurance, says Attorney General Tan Sri Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar.
He said while AI could assist clinical judgement, corporate decision-making and the processing of complex information, effective human oversight remained essential.
"As our reliance on these systems grows, so too does the importance of understanding how they are used and how they are governed," he said in his keynote address at the inaugural Financial Lines Forum 2026 here on Tuesday (Oct 6).
Dusuki said institutions adopting AI needed to understand why the technology was being used, the risks arising from it and the safeguards required.
He said professionals should also question the reliability and limits of AI-generated information, who was responsible for checking its output and when a doctor, director or other professional should challenge a system's recommendation.
"And how do we properly document a decision that has been informed by AI?" he said.
Dusuki said questions would also arise when AI systems failed to perform as expected.
"These are not merely questions about technology. They are questions of governance, professional responsibility and human oversight.
"Increasingly, they may also have consequences for legal liability and insurance," he said.
He said addressing such risks required engagement among those who developed and deployed AI, those who relied on it and those responsible for assessing and managing the risks associated with its use.
"Ultimately, the question is not simply what AI can do. The more important question is how we, as professionals, choose to use it responsibly," he said.
On corporate governance, Dusuki said directors and officers were expected to exercise proper care and attention even when making decisions involving uncertainty, competing interests and commercial risk.
He said good governance depended not only on the outcome of a decision but also on the process by which it was reached.
"What questions were asked? What risks were identified? Were conflicts properly addressed?
"These are not merely questions of corporate administration. They may ultimately become questions of legal responsibility," he said.
Dusuki said directors' and officers' liability insurance was an important part of risk management but should not be regarded as a substitute for sound governance, proper decision-making, effective internal controls or professional advice.
He said directors, general counsel, insurers and brokers should therefore consider liability and insurance coverage together before a claim arose and tested their existing assumptions.
Dusuki said the broader challenge was not merely to keep pace with changes in law, society and technology, but to shape them wisely.
He said innovation must remain grounded in "the rule of law, fairness and the protection of human dignity".
