Which AI tools indemnify you, and what can you do when yours does not?

What is an AI indemnity?

An AI indemnity is a promise in an AI tool’s terms that the vendor will defend you, and pay a judgment or settlement, if someone claims the tool’s output infringes their copyright or other intellectual property. Microsoft calls its version the Customer Copyright Commitment, OpenAI calls its version Copyright Shield, and Google, Anthropic, Amazon, Adobe, IBM, Getty Images and Shutterstock carry their own.

Read who the promise runs to. It protects the vendor’s customer, the person or company holding the account. If you are a studio or post vendor using the tool for a client, the indemnity protects you, not your client. Your client gets protection only through what you promise them in your own contract.

Which plans carry the indemnity?

Paid business plans, almost without exception. Microsoft excludes free and consumer products. Google requires paid use and excludes credits and free tiers. Anthropic covers paid commercial use, not its consumer plans. Amazon excludes its free developer tier. Adobe sells the indemnity as an enterprise entitlement, and Shutterstock and Canva limit theirs to enterprise customers.

Most AI video, image and voice tools built for creators offer no indemnity at all in their standard terms. Midjourney, Stability AI, Runway, Luma Dream Machine, Pika, Kling, ElevenLabs, HeyGen and Moonvalley each ask the user to indemnify them instead. Some sell enterprise agreements whose terms are not published, so if you are on one, read your own contract rather than the public terms.

What conditions come with an AI indemnity?

The same few appear in nearly every one. The vendor’s safety systems, content filters and citation features must be left on. You must not have known, or had reason to know, that the output infringed. You must have had the rights to whatever you put in. Trademark claims about using the output in commerce are commonly excluded. Notice must be prompt, and the vendor usually controls the defense.

Two conditions matter most for production work. Many indemnities cover only unmodified output, and Adobe says expressly that edits made in Creative Cloud fall outside. Several exclude your own inputs or anything combined with other material. Post, VFX and animation work is almost entirely modification and combination, frequently on footage the client supplied, so an enterprise indemnity often does not reach the work a vendor actually delivers.

Do you have to buy an enterprise plan to be protected?

No. An enterprise plan is one way to get a vendor’s indemnity, and it is not the only way to be protected. You can buy the protection yourself, as a media liability policy that affirmatively covers AI-generated content. That policy defends and pays covered claims that your content infringed a copyright or trademark, defamed someone, or misused a name, likeness or voice, whichever tool made it and whether or not that tool indemnifies anyone.

In some ways it is the broader protection. A media liability policy can respond to edited and combined work, to defamation and privacy claims that tool indemnities do not address, and to work made with several tools at once. A tool indemnity covers one vendor’s output, on that vendor’s conditions. The policy wording governs what is covered, so read it for an AI exclusion, a music exclusion and the start date for past work before you rely on it.

What does your own insurance do, and what does it not do?

It covers your liability. That includes liability you take on in a contract, such as an indemnity to your client, to the extent the policy wording covers it. Many media and professional forms limit liability assumed under contract to what you would have owed anyway, or to specific kinds of claims, so ask whether your form covers an indemnity for infringement claims about your content.

It does not make the AI vendor indemnify anyone, and it does not turn a tool’s consumer terms into enterprise terms. It does not satisfy a clause about where the client’s material goes or whether the vendor trains on it. It also assumes you cleared what you used, so it does not replace music, stock or likeness clearances.

What do buyer contracts ask for, and what do they accept instead?

Buyer contracts for AI work in television and media commonly ask, in 2026, that every AI tool be properly licensed, that the license indemnify claims arising from the tool and its output, and that it be an enterprise license or equivalent so nothing put into the tool is used to train it or for anyone but the buyer.

The indemnity half is often negotiable. Buyers have accepted that AI tools do not indemnify claims about output made from material the buyer supplied, and have agreed that the vendor’s own AI media liability insurance, together with the vendor’s own contractual indemnity, satisfies the tool-indemnity requirement. That substitution should be written into the signed contract, not agreed on a call.

The rest of the package usually looks like this. You indemnify the buyer for your performance and for any breach or alleged breach of your warranties of originality, non-infringement, privacy and no defamation, softened to the best of your knowledge. You carve out footage and material the buyer supplied, edits the buyer made to the deliverables, and work done on the buyer’s instructions. Your total liability, including the indemnity, is capped, and the natural anchor for the cap is your E&O limit. Some buyers will also release the vendor from name, image, likeness and voice claims connected with the work. Many will not, but it costs nothing to ask.

Is the no-training requirement the same thing as the indemnity?

No, and it is the part insurance cannot replace. A clause that says the tool’s owner must not train on the buyer’s material, or use it for anyone else, is about data, confidentiality and the tool’s terms. Enterprise and business plans commonly promise that; consumer plans often do not. So a contract can still require an enterprise or equivalent plan for data reasons even after the buyer has accepted your insurance in place of the tool’s indemnity.

Treat them as two questions. Your media liability policy and capped indemnity can answer the indemnity question. The data question is answered by the plan you pay for, and by keeping the buyer’s unreleased material out of any tool whose terms let the vendor train on it.

How do you propose your insurance in place of the tool’s indemnity?

In the redline, in plain words. State that the AI tools used do not indemnify claims arising from output made from material the buyer supplies, and that the buyer agrees your media liability insurance covering AI-related claims, together with your indemnity under the agreement, satisfies the tool-indemnity requirement. Attach the certificate and offer the AI wording by form number.

Then line the numbers up. The cap on your liability should include the indemnity and should not exceed what your policy can pay. If the buyer wants a higher cap, the answer is a higher limit, priced before you agree to it.