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Is Your Team Using Banned AI Tools?
A conversation I’m having more often with business owners goes something like this: “We don't really use AI yet.”
A few questions later, it turns out somebody is using ChatGPT to help write emails.
Someone else is summarizing meeting notes with an AI tool.
Another person has found a browser extension that helps them create content faster.
The business may not have formally adopted AI, but AI has arrived anyway.
AI Is Already Showing Up at Work
That's not surprising.
When people find a tool that helps them get through their work more quickly, they're going to be curious about it. If it saves time, they'll keep using it.
The difficulty comes when nobody has stopped to agree where the boundaries are.
AI tools can be incredibly useful. They can help employees brainstorm ideas, summarize information, draft communications, analyze data and handle other repetitive tasks. The problem isn't necessarily the technology itself. The problem is what information employees are putting into it and whether the business knows where that information is going.
Imagine a member of your team receives a long customer email and pastes it into a public AI tool to help draft a reply.
The response comes back in seconds and saves them fifteen minutes of work.
Tomorrow they do it again.
A week later they upload a proposal because they want a summary.
A month later somebody else is using a different AI tool to analyze a spreadsheet.
At no point does anybody feel they're doing something risky. They're trying to work more efficiently.
Yet customer information, financial data, internal documents and business plans can end up being shared with systems
that haven't been reviewed or approved by the business.
That can happen without any bad intentions.
The Problem With Unapproved AI Tools
I've also noticed that AI spreads differently from other technologies.
A new accounting package usually goes through a buying process. A new CRM gets discussed before it arrives. Software is typically reviewed, approved and deployed by someone who understands how it fits into the business.
AI tools are different.
They're often discovered by individuals during the working day and adopted immediately.
By the time a business starts thinking about an AI policy, people may already have their favorite tools and workflows.
That creates an awkward situation.
If somebody believes a tool is helping them do their job better, they may not understand why they're being told not to use it. Quite often, they feel they're solving a problem rather than creating one.
That's why simply banning AI isn't always the best answer.
Give Your Team Clear Guidelines
Instead, have open conversations about it.
Make sure your team understands which AI tools are approved, which ones aren't, what information can be entered into them and what data should never be shared outside approved systems.
That might include customer information, passwords, financial records, confidential contracts, employee information, intellectual property or other sensitive business data.
Your employees don't need to become cybersecurity experts. They do need to understand the basic rules.
Most importantly, they need to feel comfortable asking questions.
If someone finds a new AI tool that could save the company hours every week, give them a way to bring it to the right person for review rather than quietly using it on their own.
Start With a Simple Conversation
If you've never asked your team which AI tools they're using, the answers might surprise you.
You may discover that your business is already relying on several AI tools without realizing it.
That's a good place to start.
The goal isn't to prevent your team from using technology that makes their jobs easier. It's to make sure that convenience doesn't come at the expense of your company's security.
Get your cybersecurity prevention evaluated by Elite Technology Solutions Group. Find out where your business may have gaps and how you can put practical protections in place before a preventable problem becomes a costly one.
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