Acceptable Use of Generative AI Tools Sample Policy

Summary

Fisher Phillips delivers a ready-to-implement policy template that tackles one of the most pressing workplace challenges of 2024: how to govern employee use of popular AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and DALL-E without stifling innovation. This isn't a theoretical framework—it's a practical document that provides specific language, clear boundaries, and actionable guidance that HR departments and legal teams can customize and deploy immediately. The template strikes a careful balance between enabling productive AI use while protecting sensitive company information and maintaining compliance standards.

What makes this different

Unlike broad AI governance frameworks that require months of interpretation, this template focuses specifically on third-party generative AI tools that employees are already using informally. It addresses the real-world scenario where staff members are experimenting with ChatGPT for writing assistance or using DALL-E for presentations, often without clear organizational guidelines. The policy template provides concrete examples of acceptable and unacceptable use cases, making it immediately actionable for organizations that need governance structures in place quickly.

The document recognizes that employees will use these tools regardless of whether formal policies exist, so it takes a pragmatic approach to channeling that usage productively while establishing necessary guardrails around data protection and quality standards.

Key policy components

• Data Protection Boundaries: The template establishes clear categories of information that should never be input into public AI systems, including customer data, financial information, and proprietary processes. It provides specific examples to eliminate ambiguity about what constitutes sensitive information.
• Quality and Verification Standards: Rather than prohibiting AI-generated content entirely, the policy sets expectations for human oversight, fact-checking, and quality review of AI outputs before they're used in business contexts.
• Approved Use Cases: The template outlines productive applications like brainstorming, initial draft creation, and research assistance, while clearly distinguishing these from final work product that requires human expertise and accountability.
• Compliance Integration: The policy language connects AI tool usage to existing company policies around confidentiality, intellectual property, and professional conduct, ensuring consistency with established governance structures.

Who this resource is for

• HR Directors and Legal Teams who need to implement AI governance policies quickly and lack the time to develop comprehensive frameworks from scratch. This template provides immediately usable policy language that can be customized to specific organizational needs.
• Mid-sized Companies (50-500 employees) that are seeing informal AI tool adoption across departments but don't have dedicated AI governance resources. The template provides enterprise-level policy structure without requiring specialized AI expertise to implement.
• Compliance Officers in regulated industries who need to establish clear boundaries around AI tool usage while maintaining flexibility for legitimate business applications. The policy framework helps demonstrate proactive governance to auditors and regulators.
• Department Managers who want to enable productive AI use within their teams while ensuring consistency with organizational standards and risk management requirements.

Implementation roadmap

• Week 1-2: Review the template against your organization's existing policies, data classification systems, and regulatory requirements. Identify any industry-specific additions needed for your context.
• Week 3: Customize the policy language to reflect your organization's terminology, approval processes, and specific AI tools in use. Add examples relevant to your business operations.
• Week 4: Conduct stakeholder review with legal, IT, and key department heads to ensure the policy addresses operational realities and technical constraints.
• Week 5-6: Roll out the policy with mandatory training sessions that include practical examples and Q&A opportunities. Focus on helping employees understand the "why" behind restrictions rather than just the rules.
• Ongoing: Establish regular review cycles (quarterly recommended) to update the policy as new AI tools emerge and organizational experience grows.

Watch out for

The template assumes a traditional employment structure and may need modification for organizations with significant contractor or remote worker populations. Consider how policy enforcement and training will work across different worker classifications and locations.

While the policy addresses data protection well, organizations in highly regulated industries (healthcare, financial services, defense) will need additional provisions specific to their compliance requirements. The template provides a foundation but shouldn't be considered sufficient for specialized regulatory environments.

The policy focuses on individual employee use rather than enterprise AI implementations or custom AI solutions, so organizations planning broader AI adoption will need additional governance frameworks beyond this template.