AI Use Policy Template for Small Businesses
Your team is already using AI. This 6-page template gives them clear rules in an afternoon: which tools are approved, what information must never go in, and who checks the output before it reaches a client.
What's inside
- Core rules on one page, written for staff, not lawyers
- An Approved Tools table and a 4-level data table (Public, Internal, Confidential, Restricted)
- Human review, accuracy, disclosure, copyright, fairness and security sections
- Rules for recording calls and AI note-takers
- A vendor checklist for approving new AI tools (training on your data, retention, BAAs and DPAs)
- Industry addenda: law firms (ABA Opinion 512), healthcare (HIPAA), accounting and tax (IRC §7216, FTC Safeguards Rule), financial advisors and insurance, real estate (Fair Housing), marketing (FTC fake-review rule)
- An employee acknowledgment form, and a source list so you can check every reference
Fill in the [BRACKETS] and you're done. General information, not legal advice; have your advisor review it if you're in a regulated field.
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Why a written AI policy matters
Most AI risk for a small business isn't the technology. It's someone pasting client details into a personal chatbot account, or sending AI output that nobody checked. A one-page set of rules, a short list of approved tools, and a named owner fix most of that. In regulated fields it's also how you show you've met your duties: law firms under ABA Formal Opinion 512, practices handling health information under HIPAA, and tax preparers under the FTC Safeguards Rule.