Is it legal to use AI

Yes, using AI tools is legal. What the law regulates is how you use them: what data you give them, what decisions you use them for and what you do with what they generate. For the everyday use of a small business or a professional (writing, summarising, translating, programming) you don't need any special permission, but you do need to be careful with personal data and with certain specific uses. I'm talking about Spain and the EU, with the rules as reviewed in September 2026.

There are three fronts worth knowing about. Data protection (GDPR), which applies as soon as you feed in information about people. The European AI Act, which bans some uses and demands more of others considered high-risk, such as recruiting staff. And copyright, where there's still a lot of debate about who owns what an AI generates and what happens if it resembles someone else's work. On top of that come each tool's terms of use, which are worth reading if you're going to use it commercially. Something being legal doesn't mean it has no consequences.

The legal questions I've genuinely asked myself and how I resolved them I explain in "Is what I'm doing with artificial intelligence legal?", in plain language and without legalese. With the usual warning: I'm not a lawyer, so for a specific case in your business what you need is to consult one. Reading a blog article, mine included, helps you ask the right questions, but it's no substitute for someone who knows your case.