Demetri Mitchell, 28, revealed that he used ChatGPT to handle his contract negotiations with Leyton Orient and deliberately bypassed an agent.
Mitchell said the decision to negotiate without an agent put extra cash in his pocket, a change he described as practical and deliberate rather than experimental.
The detail matters because Mitchell is a professional player who was previously on the books at Manchester United, though he never made an impact on the club's first-team stage. That background — a young player developed inside a top club's system who later moved on — gives his account weight inside a closed, agent-led market.
Numbers are scarce in Mitchell's account beyond his age and the claim that he kept more of his earnings. He is 28, and he has been clear that avoiding an agent saved him money; beyond that, he has not published figures or a play-by-play of how ChatGPT was used in drafting or bargaining.
Context is straightforward: the negotiation he described involved Leyton Orient and his own choices as a professional footballer. The revelation attaches to a familiar storyline — a player with Manchester United in his past seeking better outcomes later in his career — but it flips an industry norm by naming an AI tool as the vehicle for those negotiations.
The tension is plain. Football contracts are typically brokered by agents who claim legal expertise, market access and negotiation experience. Mitchell's account shows a successful detour from that model, but it leaves open critical questions about legal safety, the accuracy of AI-generated advice, and who bears responsibility if something goes wrong. Mitchell says he pocketed the extra cash; he has not detailed how legal or technical risks were managed.
What happens next is the thing to watch. Mitchell's choice puts pressure on the economics of representation: if more players feel they can use AI and negotiate directly, the traditional commission model will face real tests. Equally, clubs, governing bodies and legal advisers will have to reckon with a future where technology plays a direct role in contract talks.
For now, the clearest fact is simple and direct — Demetri Mitchell says he used ChatGPT to negotiate his Leyton Orient deal, he did so without an agent, and he kept additional money as a result. Whether that statement signals a one-off saving or the start of a broader shift in how players handle deals is the unanswered question that will determine whether this remains a curiosity or becomes a new standard.
