Plain rules for what your team puts into ChatGPT

Your team uses ChatGPT, and you’re not sure what goes in

Someone on your team pastes a client email into ChatGPT to draft a reply. Someone else uploads a spreadsheet to sum it up. It saves them time, and you’re glad of it. But you don’t know which accounts they’re using, what settings are on, or whether a client’s details have ended up somewhere they shouldn’t. Nobody wrote any rules, because nobody had the time.

Why ChatGPT on its own doesn’t keep you safe

ChatGPT has data settings, and OpenAI offers business workspaces with more control. Those are useful, but they only help if someone picks the right account and switches the right settings on. On a personal account, the choices sit with each person, and most never open the settings page.

ChatGPT also can’t tell which details are sensitive in your business. It will take a client’s address, a staff member’s sick note, or a donor list as happily as a recipe. Deciding what goes in is a job for your rules, not the tool.

How we set it up with ChatGPT

We start with a short, no-blame chat with your team about which accounts they use, which jobs they use ChatGPT for, and what kinds of details they paste in. Most teams find a few habits worth changing and plenty worth keeping.

Then we help you pick the account setup. For some small teams that’s personal accounts with the right data settings. For others, a business workspace makes more sense, because it keeps work chats in one place you control. We check OpenAI’s current terms with you, since they change over time.

Next comes the rulebook. It’s one page, in plain words, and it covers what can go in, what never goes in, how to strip out names before pasting, and which drafts need a second read. We walk your team through it with their own examples. If your team wants ChatGPT to give better answers too, we can add tested instructions from better instructions for ChatGPT.

When ChatGPT rules are the right call, and when they aren’t

They’re worth doing as soon as more than one person uses ChatGPT for work, or when anyone handles client, donor, or health details.

Rules lower the risk. They don’t remove it. A tired person can still paste the wrong thing at 9pm. That’s why the rulebook also says what to do when it happens, and why some jobs, like anything with health or legal details, may be better kept out of ChatGPT entirely.

Where to go next

See the wider using AI safely service, or read about ChatGPT. If your team uses Microsoft 365, see using AI safely with Microsoft Copilot. See how we work with not-for-profits and beauty and wellness. When you’re ready, get your AI Starter Plan.