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Build your AI usage policy in about two minutes.

Your staff are already using AI. This writes the plain-language policy that tells them where the line is, filled in for your business. Change the answers on the left and the document rewrites itself.

No email required. No signup. Copy it, download it, use it.

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AI Usage Policy

AI Usage Policy for [Business name]

A plain-language policy covering what staff may and may not do with AI tools at work. Read it, adapt anything that does not fit, then circulate it.

1. Why we have this policy

[Business name] uses AI tools because they save time and improve our work. They also carry real risks: leaking confidential or customer data, producing wrong or biased output, and creating work that nobody has checked. This policy sets out how we use AI so we get the benefit without the harm.

It applies to everyone: employees, contractors, and anyone acting on behalf of [Business name].

2. The one rule that matters most

Never put information into an AI tool that you would not email to a stranger.

If you are unsure whether something is safe to enter, it is not. Ask your manager before you proceed. Asking is always the right call and nobody will think less of you for it.

3. What you must never enter into a public AI tool

Unless the specific tool has been approved for it in writing, never enter:

  • Customer personal information: names, contact details, financial details, anything that identifies a person
  • Employee personal information
  • Passwords, access codes, or security credentials
  • Financial records, bank details, or commercially sensitive figures
  • Anything covered by a confidentiality agreement or an NDA
  • Unreleased business plans, contracts, or legal documents
  • Source code or system information that could expose our security

4. Approved tools

Only use AI tools on this list for work. Using an unapproved tool for work is a breach of this policy.

ToolApproved forNot approved for
[Tool name]Drafting, research, and summarising material that is not sensitiveCustomer data, employee data, anything in section 3

Free consumer versions of AI tools often train on what you enter and keep it. Paid business tiers usually let you turn that off. Only approve a tool once someone has checked how it handles your data.

5. Getting a new tool approved

Want to use an AI tool that is not on the list? Do not just start using it. Send a request to the operations manager with three things: what the tool is, what you want to use it for, and what data it would touch. The operations manager will check its data handling and security before approving or declining, and approved tools are added to the table above.

6. You are accountable for what AI produces

AI makes mistakes. It invents facts, gets numbers wrong, and is often confidently incorrect.

  • Check everything before it leaves the business. You are responsible for any AI-assisted work you send to a customer, publish, or rely on for a decision, exactly as if you had written it yourself.
  • Never send AI output to a customer or an external party without a person reading it first.
  • Do not use AI to make final decisions about people, including hiring, firing, discipline and pay, or about anything with legal, safety, or financial consequences. AI can assist your thinking. A person decides.

7. Be honest about AI use

  • If a customer or a colleague asks whether something was AI-assisted, tell the truth.
  • Do not present AI-generated work as if it involved professional judgement that it did not.
  • Customer-facing written work must note where AI was used in preparing it.

8. Bias and fairness

AI reflects the data it was trained on and can produce biased or unfair output. Be especially careful using AI for anything involving people, and never let it be the sole basis for a decision that affects someone.

9. If something goes wrong

If you accidentally enter sensitive information into an AI tool, or you spot AI output that has caused a problem, tell your manager straight away. The point is to fix it fast, not to assign blame. Reporting something early is always treated better than a hidden problem that surfaces later.

10. Breaches

Not following this policy may be treated as a disciplinary matter under our normal procedures, because it can put the business, our customers, and our people at real risk.

Policy owner: [name and role]
Applies to: [Business name]
Version date: [date]
Review: every six months, because AI tools change fast

Why this is free

An AI policy is the first thing a business needs and the easiest thing to put off. Charging for it would just mean fewer businesses have one. Handing it over, with no email wall in front of it, is also the honest way to show you what our work is like before you spend anything.

Use it, change it, put your own letterhead on it. There is no attribution requirement and nothing to sign.

If the policy was useful

The policy is document one of nine.

A policy tells people where the line is. It does not tell you which tools to trust, where AI is actually worth using in your business, or whether any of it paid off. That is the rest of the kit.

  • Data governance checklist, so you know what a tool does with your data before it touches it
  • Tool evaluation scorecard, with two real tools compared and the better product losing
  • Use-case grid, seven candidates scored including the high-value one worth refusing
  • 90-day adoption plan, with the staff announcement script and the five failure modes
  • ROI tracker, a worked quarter and the three challenges a sceptic always makes
  • Prompt libraries for finance, operations, marketing, HR and customer service
Get the full kit$149 one time, nine documents

A version written for your sector

The policy above is deliberately general. These are the same document rebuilt around the risks that actually dominate in one line of work: a different never-enter list, a different operative clause, and a worked example from that sector.

Questions

Is this actually free, or do I hit a paywall at the end?
Free. The policy is complete on this page, you can copy or download it right now, and there is no email step. The paid kit is a separate thing you can ignore.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is practical business guidance written to be usable, not a legal document. Employment and privacy law differ by country, so have your final version checked against your local law before you rely on it, particularly the breaches section.
Can I edit it and put my own branding on it?
Yes. Change anything, remove sections that do not apply, add your logo. There is no attribution requirement.
Does it work outside New Zealand?
The policy is deliberately written without country-specific law in it, so the substance travels. The one part to check locally is how breaches are handled under your employment rules.
How long should an AI policy be?
Short enough that people read it. A one-page policy that staff follow beats a twenty-page document nobody opens. This one is deliberately about one page once you delete what does not apply.
How often should we update it?
Every six months is a sensible default while AI tools are changing this fast, and immediately if you approve a new tool or something goes wrong.
Who wrote this?
Plainstart, a brand of Sypher Limited. We publish plain-language operational material for small and medium businesses adopting AI.