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As of 13 August 2026, AI cannot draft a UK shareholders' agreement.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

15 minutesto a draft.

n/ait cannot be self-verified.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsA solicitor is the alternative for checking and finalising the agreement; no sourced price is provided here.

If this goes wrong, the agreement can restrict transfers, voting or funding in a way that causes a dispute or leaves an important protection unavailable when you need it.

What to actually do

Hand it to a person
The route this page recommends
Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.
Use a tool built for this
Second choice

Do it yourself

The distant third

A chat interface gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.

How to actually do it

Open the company’s current articles of association, incorporation records, cap table and any investment or loan documents, and confirm the company jurisdiction and registered details.
Gather the shareholders’ names, share classes, holdings, director roles, intended decision rules and the commercial reason for making the agreement.
Write down the decisions the agreement must cover, including share transfers, pre-emption, reserved matters, leaver events, deadlock, funding, dividends, confidentiality and intellectual property.
Paste the gathered information and relevant document text into a chatbot with the copyable prompt, keeping personal and commercially sensitive information to the minimum needed for the draft.
Compare every defined term, shareholding, approval threshold and cross-reference in the draft against the company records, articles and other contracts, and record each [NEEDS DECISION] item.
Send the draft, source documents, open decisions and the solicitor review list to a UK solicitor, then use only the solicitor-approved version for signature and any required company actions.

Prompt

Draft a working first version of a shareholders' agreement for a UK company using the information below. This is not professional advice and must be reviewed by a UK solicitor before signing. Do not invent facts, clauses, legislation, figures or shareholder intentions. If information is missing, mark it as [NEEDS DECISION] and explain why it matters.

Company jurisdiction: [England and Wales / Scotland / Northern Ireland]
Company name and number: [details]
Company type and registered office: [details]
Shareholders, share classes and holdings: [details]
Directors and management roles: [details]
Business activity: [details]
Purpose of the agreement: [details]
Board and shareholder decision-making arrangements: [details]
Reserved matters requiring special approval: [details]
Share transfer restrictions and permitted transfers: [details]
Pre-emption arrangements: [details]
Leaver provisions: [details]
Deadlock process: [details]
Dividend policy: [details]
Funding and future share issues: [details]
Confidentiality, intellectual property and restrictive covenant requirements: [details]
Dispute resolution and governing law: [details]
Existing articles of association, investment documents or other relevant contracts: [paste or summarise]

Produce: (1) a clear draft with numbered clauses, (2) a schedule listing the parties, shares and key dates, (3) a plain-English explanation of each major clause, (4) conflicts or gaps that should be checked against the articles and other documents, and (5) a solicitor review list. Separate confirmed facts from assumptions. Do not state that the document is ready to sign.

Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

AI cannot decide which protections reflect the shareholders’ actual bargaining position when the instructions are incomplete or conflict.
AI cannot reliably reconcile the agreement with the company’s articles, investment documents, financing terms and the law applying to the company’s jurisdiction.
AI cannot assess whether a leaver, transfer, voting or deadlock clause will work in the dispute you eventually face.
AI does not take responsibility for defective drafting, unenforceable terms or losses caused by relying on the document.
AI cannot replace a solicitor’s advice on execution, disclosure, tax, employment and related corporate steps.

What makes this a NO: legal accountability, regulated advice and judgement under ambiguity.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

Axis	Score (0–2)
Output	2
Inputs	1
Verification	0
Liability	0
Effort delta	2
Total	5 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT write a shareholders' agreement?: It can produce a useful first draft from detailed instructions and source documents. It cannot tell you whether the terms suit your company or work with its articles, so a solicitor must check and finalise it before signing.
Is an AI-generated shareholders' agreement legally binding?: An AI-generated document is not automatically binding simply because it was generated or signed. Its effect depends on the wording, the parties, execution and how it fits with the company’s articles and other agreements.
Do I need a solicitor for a shareholders' agreement?: For a serious or financially important arrangement, yes. This is not professional advice, and a UK solicitor should check the agreement, its interaction with the articles and the consequences of the negotiated terms.
What should a UK shareholders' agreement include?: Common subjects include ownership, decision-making, reserved matters, share transfers, pre-emption, leaver provisions, deadlock, funding, dividends, confidentiality and dispute resolution. The right provisions depend on the company, its jurisdiction, its articles and the shareholders’ agreement.

Nearby answers

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Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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