Newsletter November 2026: The Business We Are Becoming

Reviewed by Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556, for ThaiLawOnline, a Thai law firm acting for foreigners since 2006.

Last updated on 1 November 2026

The monthly letter, November 2026. This month in Thai law, and how AI is changing the way we work.

I promised you a retirement special this month. I am moving it to December, because I want to explain something that is changing our firm, and probably your business too.

A client told me recently to stop talking about AI and talk about law. Fair enough. So we start with the law, and then I will explain why AI has become part of our daily work.

Thai law this month

Nominee land: governors have until December. On 19 October, the Prime Minister, who also holds the Interior portfolio, told provincial governors to finish the priority investigations into land held for foreigners by the end of December. Preliminary Department of Lands figures cover 2,360 plots linked to 1,397 suspected nominee holders. Under the Land Code, land acquired unlawfully must be disposed of, and the Director-General can dispose of it if the holder does not. Read the update, and our full guide to nominee land in Thailand.

Married to a Thai? Your spouse can still buy land. The October order does not stop a Thai citizen married to a foreigner from buying land, and money passing through the foreign spouse does not automatically make the purchase a nominee holding. What matters is whose money it is: the Land Office asks for a declaration on the source of the funds, and the land must be the Thai spouse’s personal property. Read our explanation.

A 30,000 baht debt does not justify seizing 15 rai. In Supreme Court decision 2081/2569, a creditor attached 15 rai appraised at 600,000 baht for a debt of 30,000 baht plus interest. The land was already mortgaged to a bank for 780,000 baht, and that loan was being repaid normally. The Supreme Court revoked the seizure. The limit on seizing more than is needed comes from Section 300 of the Civil Procedure Code. Read the decision and our guide on enforcing a judgment in Thailand.

Two new guides. Evicting a tenant in Thailand: changing the locks, cutting the power or putting belongings on the street is not an eviction. And the non-compete clause in Thailand, which in a Thai contract is neither automatically void nor automatically binding.

Full analyses are available to Silver members. New decisions and legal news are added every week in This Week in Thai Law, and every decision we have summarised is in our Supreme Court decisions database.

Three times the clients, fewer employees

We now serve about three times as many clients as we did ten years ago, with fewer employees. Some of our fees are half what they used to be. How is that possible?

We work online. We use specialists when we need them. We changed our marketing and the way we organise the work. And we use AI every day.

I believe AI is probably the most powerful tool our society has ever invented. You may think I exaggerate. Look at what it already allows a small firm to do.

Translation is a good example. When my assistant translated a document, it took time, sometimes a lot of time. While she was translating, she could not prepare another file, answer a client or collect documents. We paid for that time, and the cost had to go somewhere in our fees.

Today, AI prepares a first translation very quickly. We still check the meaning, the legal terms, the names and the figures. But we start from something to review, not from a blank page. Multiply that by every document a law firm handles.

My assistants spend more time moving files forward. Our Thai lawyers concentrate on the legal issues. I can supervise more work without raising every price. The same is happening with research, correspondence, administration and our website, which we can now publish in Thai and French as well as English.

Reading Thai law faster

I have lived in Thailand since 2004. I speak Thai and I read it, but slowly. Reading a Supreme Court decision in Thai, following the reasoning and checking the sections used to take me a long time.

Today, new decisions reach me every week with summaries. I see what the case is about, why it matters and what I need to examine. I read more, I learn faster and my discussions with our Thai lawyers are better. Before we rely on a decision, we still read the judgment itself, because a summary can miss a fact or an exception. That is how the decisions in the first part of this letter reach you, and how our property law decisions keep growing.

I also use tools such as Deep Research to study a subject properly: compare sources, find different explanations and get a report with references I can check. I often start with one question and find three issues I had not considered. The more I learn, the better my next questions become.

A hotel manager or someone starting a business can do the same with a market, a supplier or a competitor, before spending any money. A small business could rarely afford a researcher. Now it can have much of that help.

From asking questions to receiving work

Most people still use AI to ask a question or rewrite an email. That is useful, but it can do much more.

Dots are personal agents in ChatGPT. They remember the context of your work, use the applications you connect and keep working between conversations. You give them a task, or an ongoing responsibility.

I can ask an agent to review my emails and calendar, prepare my working day, flag matters that need attention and gather what I need before a meeting. Research I used to request every week can now arrive on its own. That is what I mean by proactive: the agent brings me something useful before I think of looking for it. I decide what it can access, and what it must ask me before acting.

There is a big difference between opening a chat to ask a question and coming back to work that is already prepared.

In October I spent a week in Seoul. I used Dots and Grok Bot to book restaurants and tours, get directions and send emails while on the move. I wrote about the trip on my personal website: my first three days, and the full week, with the costs, the food and what I would do differently.

The tool is only part of the work

Can everyone buy the same AI? More or less. Will everyone get the same results? I do not think so.

You need to know what to ask, what information to give and how to check the answer. You also need to organise the work: what the agent does, what the assistant checks and what the lawyer decides. Our templates, our sources, our instructions and the mistakes we have found and corrected all matter. A subscription does not give anyone twenty years of experience managing law firms in Thailand.

Confidentiality matters too. We control what information enters a system and who can access it. Working faster does not remove that responsibility. I still make the decisions, and our Thai lawyers keep their professional responsibilities.

Take a restaurant. AI can prepare the social posts, translate the menu, sort the enquiries and research what customers want. The owner still has to serve good food, manage the staff and welcome people properly.

My advice is simple. Pick one task that takes time every week. Try AI on it. Check the result, measure the time saved, then improve the process. You do not have to automate everything, but you should understand these tools before your competitors understand them much better than you do.

Tools you can use today

With Khun Wichuda, our Thai lawyer, I have been building resources you can use yourself. Some are free. Others come with membership or as individual purchases.

Resource	What it helps you do
Weekly legal news	Follow new laws and court decisions that affect foreigners.
Thai Law Library	Read the legislation, our explanations and the related decisions.
AI Legal Assistant	Explore a first question using our legal resources.
Template Library	Find documents and practical guidance.
Lease Scanner	Spot the clauses to look at closely before you sign.
Legal Health Check	See the gaps in your home, family, visa and will.

The automated tools help you understand an issue and prepare your questions. They are not a lawyer reviewing your documents. When you need that, book a consultation.

When you compare firms, look at what they publish: the depth, the sources and how often it is updated. That tells you more than any claim about how much AI someone uses.

Coming in December: the retirement special

Art in the temples, krathong on the water

The Bangkok Art Biennale is back. This fifth edition, Angels and Mara, runs from 29 October 2026 to 28 February 2027, with contemporary art in temples, museums and landmarks around Bangkok. Biennale admission is free. Pick one or two venues, take your time, and check each venue’s entry arrangements on the official map before you go.

Loy Krathong falls on 24 November. If you float a krathong this year, choose one made of banana trunk, leaves or bread rather than foam.

Saving time at work should also leave us time to enjoy life. Otherwise, what is the point?

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the previous issues in our newsletter archive.