Write Your Team's AI Rules in an Afternoon · Lesson 1 of 7
Find out what your team already uses
20 minutes. You can't write rules for tools you don't know about.
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Most owners guess low. You know about the person who mentioned ChatGPT in a meeting. You probably don't know about the bookkeeper who drafts collection letters in a free Claude account on her phone, or the part-timer who turns customer photos into social posts with an image tool you've never heard of.
None of that is bad intent. People found something that saves them time, and nobody said otherwise. Your rules will only work if they start from what's really happening, so the first job is to ask. Nicely.
If the survey feels like a trap, people will answer "I don't use AI" and keep using it quietly. Then your rules cover nobody.
So say it plainly, up front, in writing: nobody is in trouble for anything they've done with AI so far. You're asking because you want to set the business up properly, pay for the right tools, and protect everyone. That's true, and it's the only way you'll get honest answers.
A few things that help:
- Let people answer without their name. You'll lose a little detail. You'll gain a lot of honesty.
- Ask what it helps with, not just what they use. The answers tell you which tools are worth paying for.
- Go first. Fill in the survey yourself and share your own answers. If the owner admits to using a free account for the newsletter, everyone relaxes.
Six things. The Team AI Use Survey template asks each one in plain words.
- Which tools. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, an image tool, a note-taker, something built into another app.
- Which account. A personal free account, a personal paid one, or one the company gave them.
- What for. Emails, summaries, social posts, spreadsheets, research, images, meeting notes.
- What goes in. Customer names? Pricing? Contracts? Employee details? You're not judging. You're mapping.
- What comes out and goes where. Does AI-made text go straight to customers? Onto the website? Into a bid?
- What they wish they could do. This is your wish list for the approved tools.
People often don't think of these as "using AI," so ask about them by name:
- Meeting note-takers that join video calls and send a summary afterward.
- AI features inside tools you already pay for: your email, word processor, design tool, accounting software or CRM may have added an assistant.
- Browser extensions that "help you write" or summarize pages.
- Phone apps used on personal phones for work tasks.
- Open the Team AI Use Survey template.
- Change the bracketed parts: your business name, the deadline, and how to send answers back (a paper box, an anonymous form, or a reply to you).
- Fill it in yourself first, honestly.
- Send it to everyone, including part-timers and anyone who works from home. Use the short note at the top of the template, which says nobody is in trouble.
- Give people two or three working days.
If you have fewer than ten people, you can also do this out loud in a short huddle. Read the six questions, write the answers on a whiteboard, and don't write down names.
Make a simple tally. One row per tool, with how many people use it, which kind of account, and what for. You'll use this in Lessons 2 and 3. Look for three things:
- The tools most people already use. These are your strongest candidates for the approved list. People pick up rules faster for tools they already know.
- Personal accounts holding company work. These are your first fix.
- Anything sensitive going in. Customer records, employee details, financials. Note it without judging. Lesson 3 deals with it.
Send the survey today, with a deadline two or three days out, and put a 20-minute block on your calendar for the day after the deadline to tally the answers.
- Everyone on the team, including part-timers, has the survey.
- The note says, in writing, that nobody is in trouble.
- You've filled it in yourself.
- You have time booked to tally the answers.
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→ Next: Move work onto company accounts