Employees using AI at work will be the workplace issue of 2026.
Not remote work.
Not noncompetes.
Not DEI.
AI.
Because employees are already using it — to draft emails, summarize documents, create work product, prepare presentations, and even help with performance reviews — whether employers have approved it or not.
And most companies are completely unprepared.
If your organization doesn’t have a workplace AI policy, you don’t have an AI strategy — you have an unmanaged risk.
Every business, regardless of size or industry, should have a clear, practical AI “Responsible and Approved Use” policy that covers at least these 10 essentials:
1.) Approved vs. prohibited AI tools
Identify which AI tools employees may and may not use for company business, and establish a process for reviewing and approving new AI technologies as they emerge.
2.) Confidentiality and data protection
Prohibit employees from inputting confidential, proprietary, personal, or client information into AI systems and from training AI models on company data without express authorization.
3.) Accuracy and human responsibility
Require human review of all AI-generated content and confirm that employees—not AI tools—remain fully responsible for the accuracy, quality, and compliance of their work.
4.) Bias and discrimination safeguards
Prohibit the use of AI in ways that create or perpetuate bias, particularly in hiring, promotion, performance evaluation, discipline, or termination decisions.
5.) Intellectual property ownership and protection
Clarify that AI-generated work created in the scope of employment is company property and must not infringe third-party intellectual property rights.
6.) Legal and regulatory compliance
Require all AI use to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including those governing discrimination, wage-and-hour, privacy, data protection, and intellectual property.
7.) Transparency and disclosure expectations
Define when employees must disclose AI use internally and when disclosure is required in communications with customers, clients, regulators, or the public.
8.) Limits on employment-related decisions
Prohibit fully automated employment decisions and require meaningful human involvement in any AI-assisted hiring or other employment-related decisions.
9.) Security, IT, and cybersecurity alignment
Require AI use to comply with IT and cybersecurity standards and prohibit the use of unapproved or personal AI tools for company business.
10.) Training, enforcement, and accountability
Require periodic training on appropriate AI use and provide that violations of the AI policy may result in discipline, consistent with existing company policies and procedures.
None of this about being anti-AI. It’s about being intentional, lawful, and smart.
Like it or not, AI is here to stay. Now is the time to get ahead of it. Does your business have an AI policy? If not, what are you waiting for?
