What do the AI clauses in a client contract ask of our insurance?

What does “licensed enterprise tools only” ask of you?

It asks that every AI tool you use on the job is properly licensed, on an enterprise tier or one with the same terms, and that the license allows commercial use of the output. A personal or free account usually does not, and some free tiers watermark the output or restrict it to personal use.

Keep a list of every tool, the plan you pay for, and the terms that apply to it. The buyer can ask for it, and the insurance company will ask for the same list on the application.

What does the no-training clause ask?

It asks you to make sure the tool’s owner cannot use the footage, scripts, artwork or data the buyer gives you to train a model that other customers can use. Enterprise terms often promise this and consumer terms often do not, so the clause usually decides which tier you buy.

Insurance does not satisfy this clause. It is a promise about your tools. If the buyer’s unreleased material leaks through a tool, the claim may look like a privacy or confidentiality claim, which is why the privacy exclusions further down matter.

The contract wants the AI tool to indemnify the buyer. What if the tool will not?

This is the clause vendors most often cannot meet as written. The buyer wants the AI tool’s license to defend and pay claims about the tool and its output. A few enterprise plans offer an indemnity, usually limited to output made inside the vendor’s own apps and often excluding anything made from material the customer uploaded. Most tools offer none, and a vendor working from the buyer’s own footage is rarely covered by one.

What buyers commonly accept instead is your own media liability policy that affirmatively includes AI-generated content, together with your own contractual indemnity, capped at a sensible number. Propose that substitution in the redline, in writing, rather than signing a requirement you cannot meet. The insurance is what makes your indemnity worth something to the buyer.

What goes in an AI disclosure log?

For every AI output used in the delivery, especially in factual content: the tool and its license, the prompts or inputs, the date, a short description of what came out, any edits made afterward, and any underlying licensed material with its license. Buyers ask for it to sit with the normal rights paperwork for each shot.

Some contracts also ask, on request, for a written summary of AI used during development even if none of it reached the final delivery. Keep development notes from day one, because reconstructing them later is guesswork.

The log is also your defense file. When a claim says a frame copies someone else’s work, the record of what went in and who changed what is the first thing your insurance company and its lawyer will ask for.

What do the originality and non-infringement warranties promise?

You promise the work is original and does not infringe copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy or publicity rights, and is not defamatory. Ask for "to the best of your knowledge" in front of it. No vendor can know what a third-party model was trained on, and a knowledge qualifier turns an impossible promise into an honest one.

Originality has a second meaning with AI work. Material generated wholly by a model may not be protected by copyright at all, so a warranty that the buyer will own a valid copyright in every frame can be a promise you cannot keep. Human work on the output, and a record of it, is what supports ownership.

Which indemnity carve-outs are worth asking for?

Buyer contracts commonly make you indemnify the buyer for your performance and for any breach, or alleged breach, of your warranties. Three carve-outs are ordinary requests and often accepted. You should not answer for claims caused by footage or material the buyer supplied, edits the buyer made after delivery, or work done on the buyer’s instructions.

This matters for insurance as well as fairness. Media and professional policies commonly exclude liability you take on by contract beyond what you would owe anyway, so an indemnity for the buyer’s own material is a promise your policy may not stand behind.

Where should the liability cap land?

Buyer drafts often have no cap, which means your liability, including the indemnity, is unlimited. Ask for a cap, and anchor it on your policy limit. If your E&O limit is $1M or $2M, a cap at that number means the promise you make and the insurance behind it are the same size.

Make sure the cap expressly includes the indemnity. A cap that applies to everything except indemnity leaves the largest exposure uncapped.

What does the insurance clause ask for?

A common shape is general liability at $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, E&O at $1M per claim "including AI related claims", workers’ compensation, auto if you have vehicles, and the buyer and its affiliates as additional insureds on general liability and E&O. It usually ends with a certificate and 30 days’ notice of cancellation or material change.

Additional insured status and notice of cancellation are endorsements on the policy, not words on the certificate, so ask your agent to add them before the certificate goes out. If crew are paid through a payroll company, that company’s workers’ compensation can often satisfy the workers’ compensation line; check the contract’s wording and send the payroll company’s certificate with yours.

Expect separate clauses for clearances (music, stock, clips and releases at your expense) and for confidentiality. Insurance assumes you cleared what you used; it does not replace clearance.

Why is a video production professional liability policy often not enough?

A general professional liability policy written for "video production" answers a client who says your work or advice cost them money. It is often silent on AI, and many such forms exclude intellectual property claims except for narrow cases, which is the claim AI work is most likely to bring.

A media liability policy is built for claims about content: copyright and trademark infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy and misuse of a name, likeness or voice. For AI work, the version you want says in writing that AI-generated content is included, or confirms that no AI exclusion is attached. The certificate looks the same either way, so ask for the wording.

Which exclusions should you check before you sign?

An AI exclusion of any kind, on the media form or on general liability. Original music, which some media forms exclude or limit, and which matters if you generate or compose score. A covered-productions limit, for example a policy written for corporate and educational video that may not extend to television, streaming or theatrical work. Privacy and data exclusions, which matter when you hold a buyer’s unreleased material.

Then the start date for past work. Most media and professional policies answer claims made while the policy is in force, and only for work done after a start date shown on the policy (insurers call it the retroactive date). If you delivered AI work before that date, a claim about it later may not be covered. Ask for the earliest start date you can get, and never let it move later at renewal or when you change insurance companies.