AI Rules for Your Team

AI Rules for Our Team (one page)

Print this and pin it near the screens. Change the wording to suit your business, and fill in the three blanks at the bottom.

The five rules

1. AI drafts. A person decides. Anything that goes to a customer, touches money, or makes a promise is read and approved by a person first.
2. Never paste what you would not put on a postcard. No client names with personal details, no health or financial records, no passwords, no staff files. Describe the situation instead: "a new client asking about our fees", not their name and story.
3. Say when AI helped. If a customer asks, we tell them. Our chat assistant always says it is an AI.
4. Check every fact before it leaves the building. AI can sound sure and be wrong. Prices, dates, rules and names get checked against our own records.
5. Think first, then prompt. Write down what you want and why before you open the tool. AI is for speed, not for deciding.

Which tools we use

Fill this in once, with the tools your team is allowed to use. Example answers are shown in italics.

Who to ask

If you're not sure whether something is OK to paste: don't paste it — ask first.

Our go-to person for AI questions: ______________________ (write the name and role of one person, e.g. "Sam, practice manager")

Keep it current

AI tools change quickly, so check these rules every three months.

• Date we agreed these rules: ____ / ____ / ______
• Next check (three months later): ____ / ____ / ______
• Agreed by: ______________________ (the owner or manager)

What never goes into an AI tool

Use this as a quick check before pasting anything.

Never

• Full names together with addresses, dates of birth or phone numbers
• Health, medical, disability or care information about a real person
• Bank, card, tax file or Medicare numbers
• Passwords, login codes, API keys
• Staff performance notes, complaints, disputes
• Anything a client told you in confidence

Fine (with care)

• Your own templates, policies and FAQs
• Anonymous descriptions: "a client in their 70s asking about home support"
• Public information already on your website
• Your own notes about how a process works

Healthcare example

A clinic wants help writing a reply to a worried parent.

• Don't paste: the child's name, diagnosis and the parent's email.
• Do paste: "A parent is asking whether we see children for handwriting difficulties and how long the waitlist is. Our waitlist is about three weeks. Write a warm, short reply."

The same rule works for a plumber, an accountant or a retailer: describe the situation, never the person.

Think first, then prompt (card)

Before you open ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, answer these four lines yourself:

1. What do I want? (one sentence)
2. Who is it for? (the reader)
3. What must it include? (facts, prices, dates — from our records)
4. What should it never say? (promises, guesses, private details)

Then paste this:

You are helping [business name] write [what].
The reader is [who]. Tone: warm, plain English, short.
Must include: [facts].
Never: make promises, guess facts, or add details I didn't give you.
If something is missing, ask me instead of inventing it.

Why this matters: the four lines are your thinking. The AI only does the typing.