Of course, go ahead and test it
It's free, and can always be removed if it isn't helpful.
Inkscape can open /some/ AI files, but as far as I know, not all of them. AI, however, can export to SVG.
To my understanding AI, when saving, seems to put two versions of the file into its saves (I think there's a setting that prevents that, you'd need to do some research):
one binary, that contains the original data and all AI-specific stuff, and one that can be read by other programs. If you use Inkscape with such a file, it will be able to alter the readable part, but it won't change the AI-binary part.
If you open such a file again with AI, and haven't removed the binary part first, AI loads the data from the unchanged binary part, so it looks like the changes you made were lost. So please remove that binary blob