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Small Business AI Policy Template

A plain-English policy your team can adapt before employees start putting customer data, contracts, or private business information into AI tools.

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Copyable AI policy

Small Business AI Usage Policy

Purpose
This policy explains how employees may use AI tools at work while protecting customer data, company information, and work quality.

Approved Use
Employees may use approved AI tools for brainstorming, outlining, drafting non-sensitive content, summarizing public information, improving internal writing, and creating first drafts for human review.

Restricted Data
Employees may not paste customer private information, medical information, legal details, financial records, passwords, API keys, internal strategy, confidential contracts, employee records, or unpublished business data into public AI tools unless leadership has approved that specific workflow.

Human Review
AI output must be reviewed before it is sent to customers, posted publicly, used for decisions, added to official records, or connected to another business system.

Accuracy
Employees are responsible for checking facts, numbers, names, dates, prices, legal claims, medical claims, technical instructions, and customer-specific details generated by AI.

Tool Approval
New AI tools must be reviewed before use if they connect to company accounts, store company data, automate customer communication, access CRM records, or make decisions on behalf of the business.

Security
Employees must not share passwords, private files, customer exports, API keys, or system access with AI tools. AI-generated code, formulas, or automation steps must be tested before production use.

Customer Communication
AI may help draft customer messages, but employees must confirm that the final message is accurate, respectful, and appropriate for the customer situation.

Escalation
If an employee is unsure whether a use case is allowed, they must ask a manager before using AI with the data or workflow.

Review Cadence
This policy should be reviewed quarterly as tools, risks, and business workflows change.

This is a starting template, not legal advice. Businesses with HIPAA, legal, financial, or regulated data should adapt it with professional guidance.

Rollout checklist

Name the AI tools employees may use.

Mark which data is public, internal, or restricted.

Create examples of allowed and not allowed prompts.

Train managers on when AI output needs review.

Review connected AI tools quarterly.

Update the policy when workflows or tools change.

For more context, read the full article on small business AI policy for employees.