Is your team using AI tools you haven’t approved?
(Watch the video summary or read the full article below.)
A conversation we’re having more often with organisations goes something like this:
“We don’t really use AI yet.”
A few questions later, it turns out someone is using ChatGPT to help write emails, while someone else is summarising meeting notes with an AI tool.
Another person has found a browser extension that helps them create content faster.
The organisation may not have formally adopted AI, but AI has arrived anyway.
That’s not surprising.
When people find a tool that helps them work more quickly, they’re naturally going to try it. If it saves time, they’ll keep using it.
The difficulty comes when nobody has stopped to agree where the boundaries are.
Imagine someone receives a long email from a customer, parent or supplier and pastes it into a public AI tool to help draft a response.
The answer comes back in seconds and saves them fifteen minutes.
Tomorrow they do it again.
A week later, they upload a document because they want a quick summary.
A month later, someone else is using a different AI tool to analyse a spreadsheet or create a report.
Nobody is trying to do anything wrong. They’re simply looking for ways to work more efficiently.
But personal information, financial data, pupil or staff information, internal documents and confidential plans can end up being shared with AI systems that haven’t been reviewed or approved.
And it can happen without anyone realising there’s a problem.
AI also spreads differently from many other technologies.
A new finance system usually goes through a buying process. A new CRM or school management platform gets discussed before it is introduced.
AI tools are different.
People discover them during the working day and can start using them immediately.
By the time an organisation starts thinking about an AI policy, people may already have their favourite tools and workflows.
That can make the conversation difficult.
If someone believes a tool is helping them do their job better, they may not understand why they’re being asked not to use it.
From their perspective, they’re solving a problem, not creating one.
So rather than simply telling people what they can’t use, start with an open conversation.
- What AI tools are people already using?
- What information are they putting into them?
- Which tools have been approved?
- And what information should never be shared outside your organisation?
Clear guidance gives people the freedom to benefit from AI while reducing the risk of sensitive information being shared in the wrong place.
If you’ve never asked your team which AI tools they’re using, the answers might surprise you.
It’s a good place to start.
If you’d like help reviewing how AI is being used across your organisation and putting sensible controls around it, get in touch.
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