AI’s Assault on Legal, Medical, & Other Professions…Lawyers & Doctors Fight Back, Who Will Win?

You’ve invested years or your life and taken on hundreds of thousands in debt to become a doctor or a lawyer and now AI appears to be on the verge of rendering that investment of time and money worthless: “AI will soon beat doctors and lawyers by a large margin” - Elon Musk.

But like Star Wars, “The Professionals Strike Back”. The gatekeepers of these hallowed professions are slamming the doors shut, making claims of "public safety" while battling to protect their turf. And mark my words, their defenses will crumble under the weight of innovation.

The markets most threatened by AI, legal services and healthcare, aren't waiting around. They've mobilized for strict enforcement, insisting on oversight by licensed pros like attorneys and doctors. Take the legal world: Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) rules, enforced by state bar associations, have long barred non-lawyers from giving advice or drafting legal docs. In 2023, GPT-4 scored in the top 90th percentile on the bar exam, but this was not enough to clear the UPL rules…yet. Now, with AI chatbots spitting out legal strategies faster than a junior associate, bars (the legal ones, not the alcohol ones) are doubling down. In medicine, it's a similar story. State medical practice acts and federal regulations require that diagnoses, treatments, and advice come from licensed physicians. AI? It's relegated to the back office, crunching data but never calling the shots without a human MD in the loop.

But none of this has changed the fact that users can get medical and legal advice from their favorite AI chatbot. It just comes with a disclaimer that you should seek out a professional. New law seeks to change that. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 1806, the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, into law on August 4, 2025. This bombshell prohibits AI from providing mental health therapy or decision-making services outright, allowing it only for admin grunt work under licensed behavioral health pros. The rationale? Shield patients from "unregulated and unqualified" AI, especially vulnerable kids turning to chatbots amid a youth mental health crisis. Once again it was sold under the claims of “public safety” but it smacks of a job-saving political payoff to a constituency. 

This law is just the opening salvo in what will be an interesting battle. There is growing pressure at the Federal level under the Trump administration to stop AI from dying a death of a thousand cuts fighting state and local regulations. That should be interesting. 

I expect the legal and medical lobbies to escalate in predictable steps. Step 1: Mandating disclaimers like "I'm not a lawyer/doctor – this isn't advice, seek a professional!" in applicable AI responses (done). Step 2: The lobbying groups like the AMA and bar associations will impose guidelines and ethics opinions (also done). Step 3: PR Blitz: these lobbying groups will promote stories of user harm from AI (early stages). Step 4: Legal challenges, fines and other punishment for AI “abuse” (seeing this in legal now). Step 5: The lobbyists will demand human oversight, or human-in-the-loop (HITL) to protect the public from harm (early days).   

When these half-measures fail,  and they will, as AI gets smarter and users savvier they will push for laws, like those in Illinois. They will forbid the AI chatbots from answering certain categories of questions. The technology for this, called AI guardrails, is already in use for other purposes like sexism, violence, racism, etc. The regulations against practicing without licensing will be pushed as law of the land.

What happens if Big Tech throws the “Reverse Uno Card” by having their AI models pass the medical boards and bar exam to “get legally licensed”. Wouldn’t that be a crazy twist? 

Bottom line: We can’t put the AI genie back in the bottle, no matter what legislation we pass. Tech innovation doesn’t respect borders. China’s Great Firewall isn’t even holding, people tunnel around it with Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The same will happen in LLMs. And when SLMs are on your phone, they will be jailbroken to answer any question. 

What do you think – is this protectionism in disguise, or genuine safeguarding? Dive deeper in the comments, and stay tuned for more on how disruptors are reshaping our world. Continue reading our blog for insights that cut through the noise.