Use AI with clients and students without crossing into advice
Coaching clients tell you things they don't tell anyone else, and students ask questions about their own money, health, or work. AI must not give personal advice or read notes it doesn't need. We set simple rules for what AI may see, which tools are approved, and which questions always go to you. The bookkeeping course we work with sends anything about a student's own tax to a person, and that's the kind of line we draw.
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Where a coaching or course business needs AI rules
Personal advice goes to you
AI helpers answer from your course material and pass questions about a person's own situation to you.
Coaching notes
Session notes stay in tools you control and are only read by an AI helper when you ask it to draft a follow-up.
Recordings and transcripts
Call recordings only go into AI tools your clients have agreed to, set up on your own accounts.
Approved tools
A short list of AI tools you and your assistant may use, with a one-page guide in plain words.
Where the risk sits
Coaches and educators are often early AI users. Call recordings go into transcription tools. Session notes get pasted into a chat tool to draft a follow-up. A course community bot answers whatever it’s asked. Each step saves time, and each one moves private conversations somewhere the coach hasn’t really looked at. A bot that answers a personal question confidently can also do real harm.
The rules we put in place
Using AI safely (the industry calls it AI governance) means a few clear rules you and your assistant follow without having to think hard. AI answers from your material and passes personal questions to you. Coaching notes and recordings only go into tools you’ve set up, with your clients’ agreement. We set up the approved tools on your accounts and write a one-page guide, plus a short paragraph for your welcome pack that tells clients how their information is handled.
Where a course drew its line
We work with a two-person online course business teaching bookkeeping with 400 students. An AI helper answers their questions from the course material and links the lesson, and the founders now answer about 20 questions a week instead of 120. From the start, anything about a student’s own tax goes to a person. General lessons are safe to answer from. Personal situations aren’t.
What rules can’t cover
Rules only help if people follow them. A guide can’t stop someone pasting a client’s notes into a personal account. We make the safe way the easy way, but your business owns the decision. We also don’t give legal advice, so questions about your obligations go to your adviser.
To see where your AI use needs tightening, get your AI Starter Plan and tell it which tools you use.
Related
Read about our Using AI safely service, and how we help small teams in coaching and online education.
Common questions
Can I use AI to summarise coaching calls?
What if a student asks for personal advice?
Does this make us compliant?
What does it cost?
Where does our data live?
Find out where your AI risks are
Tell us which AI tools you use with clients and students. Get your AI Starter Plan and you'll see what to tighten first.
Get your AI Starter Plan