The Complete Guide to Using AI as a Legal Professional in Uruguay in 2025

For legal professionals in Uruguay, 2025 is shaping up as a moment of real consequence: Uruguay became the first Latin American country to sign the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, joining other global signatories and signaling stronger cross‑border AI standards (Uruguay signs Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI and Human Rights).

At the same time, national efforts on capacity‑building and AI ethics are underway to make public‑sector systems more AI‑ready (Uruguay public-sector AI capacity and ethics initiatives), and headline industry analysis warns that a majority of employers now expect AI experience from new hires (57% in recent 2025 trends).

That convergence - new regulation, government programs, and shifting hiring norms - makes practical training essential; a focused pathway like the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp can help lawyers turn compliance risk into a competitive skill, not just a compliance checkbox.

In 2025 Uruguay has stitched together a pragmatic, pro‑innovation framework where crypto and AI policy move in parallel: Law 20,345 formally recognized virtual assets and placed oversight with the Central Bank (BCU), which is now registering Virtual Asset Service Providers and drafting secondary rules that prioritize financial consumer protection, anti‑money‑laundering safeguards and international alignment - rules the BCU signaled would be published in August, offering clearer legal certainty for firms and investors (Uruguay builds a clear and competitive regulatory landscape for crypto innovation).

Stablecoins that are fully fiat‑backed may be treated as electronic money under the new approach, while institutional capacity is growing too: Montevideo hosted the Blockchain Summit Global (over 60 speakers) and saw the launch of the Blockchain Chamber to connect regulators, startups and service providers.

At the same time, a national AI strategy for 2024–30 and public‑sector capacity plans are accelerating AI adoption across government and industry, reinforcing the need for lawyers to understand both compliance duties and emerging digital‑asset risks (Uruguay approves national AI strategy and digital infrastructure plan).

The Central Bank is also studying a possible digital currency, underscoring that payments, privacy and security are now integral to legal practice in Uruguay (Central Bank research on a potential digital currency in Uruguay).

“Uruguay is proving you can regulate without killing innovation.”

For Uruguayan practitioners in 2025 the most immediate and high‑value AI use cases are practical and familiar: AI contract review and CLM that flags non‑standard clauses, suggests redlines from firm playbooks and produces risk scores so busy teams can triage deals faster (see Juro's deep dive on AI contract review), legal research platforms that pull precise points of law and speed brief analysis, e‑discovery and document review that dig through terabytes of files, and predictive analytics that estimate litigation risk or renewal timing to inform client strategy; together these tools can turn a task that once took hours into seconds - one study cited an AI review doing in 26 seconds what took humans 92 minutes - and that speed matters when advising fintech and digital‑asset clients subject to new BCU guidance on VASPs and potential CBDC work.

Other common workflows include AI drafting and templating for routine documents, multilingual translation and client chatbots for 24/7 intake, plus portfolio‑level contract analytics that surface compliance gaps across jurisdictions (useful for cross‑border work).

Practical adoption hinges on embedding guardrails and playbooks, choosing platforms that integrate with existing systems, and treating sensitive client data carefully rather than pasting it into generalist LLMs - best practice echoed across legal AI guides and vendor notes from Bloomberg Law and solution case studies.

“With AI Extract, I've been able to get twice as many documents processed in the same amount of time while still maintaining a balance of AI and human review.” - Kyle Piper, Contract Manager, ANC

When choosing AI tools and vendors in Uruguay, pick partners who make compliance simple: insist on a clear Data Processing Addendum, proof of security certifications and an explicit promise not to use client inputs to train external models, and require contractual safeguards for cross‑border transfers (Uruguayan law bars transfers to countries without adequate protection unless there's written consent or contractual guarantees) - see the local data rules and DPO requirements for context: Uruguay data protection law and DPO rules.

Run a vendor DPIA and check technical controls such as pseudonymization and masking when confidential or personal data are involved (best practice for AI systems) to avoid exposing client data to indefinite model retention or unwanted reuse: Data security for AI: masking & pseudonymization.

Operational must‑haves: verify the vendor will support Uruguay's database registration and breach flows (breaches must be notified to the URCDP within 72 hours), confirm indemnities and audit rights, and prioritise vendors who offer EU SCCs or equivalent transfer mechanisms and who submit to regular security assessments - because in Uruguay a revoked filing, a database suspension or a six‑day seizure can stop work in its tracks, so diligence isn't optional, it's practice protection.

Security, privacy and compliance in Uruguay are not optional checkboxes but daily practice - lawyers must bake LDPD obligations into workflows, vendor contracts and client advice so a single breach or registration lapse doesn't become a firm‑stopping problem.

Uruguayan rules mirror many EU standards: register and update databases quarterly, appoint a DPO where sensitive processing or large volumes (over 35,000 data subjects) are core, and notify the URCDP (and affected individuals) within 72 hours of a breach, or face sanctions that can include fines and even temporary database suspension; the law's alignment with EU adequacy decisions also shapes cross‑border transfer expectations (see the concise overview of the national LDPD and its EU alignment).

Practical safeguards start with strong minimisation, documented DPIAs for high‑risk AI workloads, and technical measures such as pseudonymization, masking or synthetic data when training models - techniques reinforced by the URCDP's anonymisation guidance and by anonymization best practices that emphasise preventing re‑identification while preserving utility.

Contractual clauses should bar vendors from using client inputs to retrain external models, require prompt breach flows, and preserve audit rights: in short, combine legal controls, careful data design and vendor‑level tech controls so compliance becomes a competitive client protection, not a late‑night crisis.

(Overview of Uruguay LDPD and EU alignment, URCDP data anonymisation guide, data anonymization best practices.)

For Uruguayan legal teams picking “what to try first,” think in practical pairs: a secure, enterprise CLM/contract reviewer for sensitive client work, and a ubiquitous productivity assistant that lives inside Microsoft 365 for day‑to‑day drafting.

Platforms such as LEGALFLY stand out for in‑house counsel because they anonymise data before processing, embed agentic review workflows and work directly in Word/SharePoint - helping teams cut a two‑hour review to about 15 minutes in real case studies - so they map well to Uruguay's strict database‑registration and breach‑notification expectations; read the expert roundup of leading vendors in the LEGALFLY guide (Top legal AI tools in 2025: expert vendor roundup).

Complement that with general‑purpose models - ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini - for flexible drafting and long‑document analysis, and add specialist Word‑centric tools like Spellbook to speed clause drafting while validating templates against Uruguayan formalities (Spellbook clause drafting and Word automation for Uruguayan legal teams).

The trade‑offs are clear: choose vendors that prove anonymisation, offer EU‑grade controls and MS‑365 integration to avoid risky copy‑paste workflows; in short, match the tool to the workflow and demand security and explainability up front so AI becomes an operational advantage, not a compliance headache.

“From day one, LEGALFLY was built to get legal work done, not just advise on it. By combining our domain-specific AI agents with FromCounsel's gold-standard content, we're giving in-house teams the tools to move faster, reduce risk, and work with confidence.” - Ruben Miessen, CEO of LEGALFLY

Integrating AI into everyday legal workflows in Uruguay means stitching together three practical threads: a modern contract lifecycle, smarter people‑processes, and continuous third‑party risk monitoring - each tool chosen to respect Uruguay's data and regulatory realities.

Start with a CLM that brings the basics (automated alerts, e‑signatures and a searchable contract repository) plus AI‑powered clause extraction so renewals and obligations don't slip; the buyer's guides show these platforms can recover hours of admin time per contract and surface portfolio risk at a glance (contract management features and benefits).

Pair that with a privacy‑aware contract reviewer that anonymises inputs, auto‑redlines in Microsoft Word and maps edits to firm playbooks so lawyers keep control while speeding reviews - real case studies report cutting reviews from hours to minutes (legal AI contract review & anonymisation).

Finally, hardwire staff readiness and vendor onboarding with AI‑driven training and virtual agents so new hires and contractors hit compliance checklists faster and consistently (AI onboarding for scalable, consistent training).

The net effect for Uruguay‑focused practices is concrete: fewer manual handoffs, auditable redlines and faster TPRM feeds into risk decisions - so routine work becomes predictable and high‑value legal judgment is where it belongs.

“AI usage is in its infancy,” says Gennarini.

As Uruguay ramps up public‑sector AI capacity and ethics work, pragmatic firms should treat pilots as structured learning labs rather than quick proofs of concept: design time‑boxed cohorts, build clear oversight with regulators or independent reviewers, and require contractual terms that specify allowed data uses, reporting obligations and any regulatory mitigations available to participants.

Regulatory sandboxes elsewhere show the playbook - applicants are vetted, cohorts run for set periods, and post‑pilot reports feed policy and best practices - so Uruguayan practices can borrow those safeguards to reduce legal uncertainty while testing high‑impact tools (Uruguay public‑sector AI capacity‑building report - Oxford Insights, Regulatory sandboxes for AI governance - Future of Privacy Forum).

Contract negotiations should lock in supervised testing rights, data‑use limits, audit and reporting cadence, and explicit remedies if outputs trigger consumer‑protection or data‑privacy exposure; when jurisdictions offer temporary enforcement relief or “regulatory mitigation” (as Utah's AI Lab has done), secure written scopes and timelines so pilots don't create open‑ended legal risk.

Treat the pilot like a racetrack: run controlled laps, learn from telemetry, then scale only after regulators and counsel sign off - an approach Europe's sandbox experiments liken to learning to drive fast safely on a track (European AI sandbox lessons - Center for European Policy Analysis).

“If you want to learn how to drive fast safely, you go to a track where experts - maybe even the police - guide you,” says Professor Antonino Rotolo.

Building practical AI skills in Uruguay means blending short, focused courses with industry credentials so lawyers can advise on fintech, VASP compliance and privacy‑sensitive AI projects without guessing; international executive options are already designed for that mix - for example, IE International Legal Practice four-module online program is a four‑module, largely online course (modules broken into units of roughly 10–15 hours each, start date listed as 29 October 2025) that covers data for legal practice and drafting for smart contracts, while IE Law School Executive Education programs on AI governance and legal tech include practitioner‑focused offerings such as a 3‑month program and a 5‑week Spanish course for hands‑on prompting and regulatory framing; complement classroom learning with sector certifications - ACAMS remains the recognised pathway for anti‑money‑laundering expertise relevant to crypto and VASP work (ACAMS anti-money-laundering certifications for fintech and crypto compliance) - so a Uruguayan lawyer can move from policy literacy to operational competence in measurable steps, turning abstract AI risk into a set of teachable controls and credentials rather than a guessing game.

AI Governance, Law, Policy and Technology

IA, Regulación y Legal Prompting

Lawyers working in or with Uruguay should plan travel as part of risk management: the U.S. State Department currently rates Uruguay Level 2 (Exercise Increased Caution) and warns that violent and property crime - often committed by pairs on motorcycles - can affect visitors in Montevideo and tourist hubs, so be especially vigilant at ATMs, avoid poorly lit areas and keep valuables out of sight (U.S. State Department travel advisory - Uruguay).

Practical steps mean more than common sense: enroll in STEP or your embassy's notification service and register travel with hosts, save the U.S. Embassy's emergency line ((598 2) 1770 2000) and local numbers, buy travel insurance that includes medical evacuation, and have contingency plans for demonstrations or sudden transport disruptions.

Road and coastal safety are real issues too - take care driving outside main highways, use bank‑inside ATMs where possible, and carry photocopies of passports as advised by consular guidance.

For firms wanting to reduce exposure to these operational risks while keeping client service high, focused training - such as the 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - builds practical AI skills that help shift routine review and intake tasks into secure, auditable workflows, making travel safer and trips more productive (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - 15-week program).