Write Your Team's AI Rules in an Afternoon · Lesson 4 of 7

A person checks it before it goes out

15 minutes. The AI drafts. A person signs off.

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AI is very good at producing something that looks finished. That's the risk. A confident email with the wrong price, a social post with a made-up statistic, a flyer with a logo that's almost yours: all of these look right at a glance.

The fix is one rule, and it's the most important line in your policy:

> Anything AI helped make that goes outside the business, a person reads and checks first. That person owns it.

Not "the AI wrote it." The person who sent it owns it, the same as if they'd typed every word.

Make it concrete for your team. It usually includes:

• Emails and texts to customers, suppliers or anyone outside the company
• Quotes, proposals, bids and invoices
• Website pages, blog posts and social posts
• Flyers, ads, signs and anything printed
• Replies to online reviews and public comments
• Job posts and offer letters
• Anything with the company name on it

Internal notes and first drafts for yourself don't need the full check. They still shouldn't break the never-paste list.

Keep it short enough to do every time. Before anything AI-made goes out, check:

• Names. Every person and company named is real, spelled right, and the right one.
• Numbers and claims. Prices, dates, quantities, statistics, "we've served 500 customers." If you can't point to where a number came from, take it out. AI tools sometimes invent facts that sound real.
• Promises. Did it promise a delivery date, a discount, a guarantee or a refund you didn't intend? Remove it or confirm it.
• Signatures and logos. A real person's name goes on it only if that person has read it. Never let AI create or alter your logo, someone's signature, or another company's brand. Use your real logo files.
• Tone and fit. Does it sound like you? Would you be comfortable if the customer saw the prompt that made it?

AI-made images raise questions text doesn't:

• People. Don't make images that look like a real customer, employee or public figure without their permission.
• "Real" photos. If an image shows your work, your shop or your product, use a real photo. Don't let a customer think an AI picture is a job you did.
• Other brands. Watch for logos, trademarks or packaging from other companies in a generated image.
• Labels. Some businesses add a small note like "Image created with AI" on marketing images. Decide whether you will.

On a small team, the person who made it usually checks it. Add a second person for anything bigger:

• Anything with a price, contract term or legal promise
• Anything going to more than a handful of people (a newsletter, an ad)
• Anything in a regulated area for your business

Write their names in the policy so nobody has to guess.

• Open the Staff AI Policy template and find section 4, Before anything goes out.
• Keep the main rule as written, or adjust the wording to fit how you talk.
• List what counts as "goes out" for your business. Cross off what doesn't apply and add what's missing.
• Keep the five-point check. Add one item if your business needs it (for example, "measurements match the job sheet").
• Write who does the second check for big items.

Take one real thing AI helped write this month, like an email, a post or a quote, and run the five-point check on it. Write down anything you would have caught.

• Section 4 of your policy has the main rule, your "goes out" list, the five-point check and a named second checker.
• You've run the check once on something real.

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