AI and your settlement agreement: what AI can and cannot do

You might ask yourself: what does a legal specialist still add, now that AI exists? A fair question. AI gives us all more knowledge, and some things you can do perfectly well yourself with it. Almost everyone uses AI these days, and it would be strange not to. At The Employment Desk, we use AI too. But negotiating and properly assessing your position remains human work.

What can AI do?

AI is very useful for understanding your settlement agreement (vaststellingsovereenkomst, or VSO) better. For example, you can use it to:

• have your settlement agreement explained in plain language;
• have legal concepts clarified, such as full and final discharge or a non-compete clause;
• have documents quickly reviewed and summarised;
• make an initial calculation of your transition payment;
• draw up a list of questions for your meeting with your employer or your legal adviser.

What can AI not (yet) do?

• Negotiate. A negotiation revolves around communication, timing and reading the other party. AI cannot sit down at the table with your employer.
• Assess your position. Is there a ground for dismissal? How strong is your employer's position? What is achievable in your situation? For that, you need experience with more than 500 comparable cases.
• Take the pressure off. Receiving a settlement agreement is stressful. Someone who stands beside you, answers your questions and takes over contact with your employer makes a real difference.
• Take the work off your hands. With AI, you still have to do, check and decide everything yourself.

Where do things go wrong?

In practice, we regularly see things go wrong when someone relies solely on AI. For example:

• Things are overlooked. Such as the consequences for your unemployment benefit, your bonus or your stock options.
• Incorrect provisions are included. AI sometimes gives answers that sound convincing but are legally incorrect or do not fit your situation.
• Amounts are out of date. Think of the cap on the transition payment or the maximum daily wage, which change every year.
• The calculation is missing components. For the transition payment, for example, your holiday allowance and your bonus are also included, and that is easily got wrong.

Mind your privacy

A settlement agreement contains a great deal of personal and confidential information: your name, your salary, the reason for your departure. Be careful about what you enter into an AI tool, especially free versions. Depending on the settings, what you enter may be stored or used to train the model. You then no longer have control over what happens to your data. So always check the privacy settings, or leave out names and amounts.

Human first, AI driven

At The Employment Desk, we work according to the principle human first, AI driven. People come first. AI makes our work easier and faster.

An example: to calculate your transition payment correctly, we sometimes need to go through 36 payslips to see which bonuses and allowances count. We have AI do that. This allows us to spend our time on what really matters: assessing your situation, advising you and negotiating with your employer.

What is in it for you? You get clarity sooner, a sharper analysis, and a specialist who makes the choices with you. And we handle your documents with care.

By all means use AI, but talk to us

You are entirely free to use AI to understand your settlement agreement better. In fact, we recommend it. But in our contact with you, we prefer it to be simply person to person. That is where the value lies: in the conversation, the experience and the negotiation.