AI Is Here: Is Your Family Business Protected?
AI didn’t enter the workplace with robots marching through the front door. It simply started showing up in…
- Google searches as an AI-generated answer
- Outlook as Copilot offering to write an email
- Zoom and Teams as an automatic meeting summary
- Canva as a tool that can create an image, remove a background or turn a few words into a presentation
Even if you were determined to avoid jumping on the AI bandwagon (like myself), you probably started hearing how other people were using it…
They were creating memes, drafting job descriptions, summarizing long documents, organizing meeting notes, building presentations, writing social media posts and turning a few scattered thoughts into a polished email.
So perhaps you dabbled. You may have…
- Asked ChatGPT one question
- Tried Copilot on an email
- Let AI summarize a meeting (and discovered it saved you 30 minutes!)
And just like that, you and AI started a relationship. First dates are easy, but long-lasting success as we all know, takes some ground rules!
Protecting Your Family Business
AI use is already widespread among family businesses. A recent report showed that of the family businesses who are using AI, only 40% have a formal AI governance framework in place.
In other words, AI is moving into businesses faster than the rules for using it. Here’s why it’s so important to have them.
An AI policy protects a family business by:
- Identifying which AI tools are approved for use
- Keeping confidential information protected
- Establishing how AI can and cannot be used
- Requiring human review before using
- Making it clear that a person remains responsible at all times
The policy isn’t about preventing people from using new technology. Rather, it gives them clarity about how use it productively and responsibly.
What Are the Risks of Not Having an AI Policy?
Most employees aren’t trying to put the business at risk. They’re trying to save time, find an answer or get their work done faster. Without clear guidelines, each person creates their own rules. This puts the company at risk. Examples are:
1. Private Information
An employee can innocently paste private info into an AI tool. Once that information leaves the company’s control, getting it back isn’t as easy as asking AI to “undo that last prompt.”
2. Inaccurate Information
AI can write with tremendous confidence even when it’s wrong. If no one verifies the information, an inaccurate answer can reach a customer, appear in company materials or influence an important decision.
3. Communication Can Stop Sounding Like You
AI-generated emails, proposals and marketing materials can quickly become generic or inconsistent without human direction.
For a family business, that matters. Your name, values and reputation have been built over generations. Every message representing the company needs to reflect that.
4. No One Knows Who Is Responsible
If AI drafts an email, evaluates information or recommends an action, who checks the work? Who approves it? Who answers for it?
To avoid these risks, getting an AI policy in place will clearly show the team how AI can assist with work, while also keeping a person responsible for it.
What Does an AI Policy Need?
A practical AI policy for a small business doesn’t need to become a 20-page manual filled with technical language. (Trust us, we started there! Haha)
It needs to answer 5 important questions:
1. Which AI tools are approved?
Employees need to know which platforms and accounts the business has authorized. We have a paid account for the team.
2. What information is off-limits?
Identify the customer, employee, financial, legal and company information that cannot be entered into an AI tool.
3. What can AI be used to for?
Establish where AI fits into everyday work and where it does not.
4. What requires human review and approval?
Anything published, emailed, priced, promised or presented as an official company position needs a person responsible for reviewing it.
5. Who owns the policy?
Name the person employees can go to with questions and who will update the policy as AI tools change. We had fun and came up with the ‘Chief AI Officer.’
Your policy doesn’t need to answer every question technology will ever create. It simply needs to answer the questions your team face today.
Use Ground Rules, Not Fear
AI brings real opportunities to save time, organize information and improve productivity. The goal isn’t to scare employees away from using it. The goal is to make responsible use clear.
This clarity will protect private information, preserve your company’s voice and establish accountability without eliminating the advantages AI brings.
AI is being use, so ensure your family business is protected.
Need an AI Policy? … Get our AI Guide and So Much More
You don’t have to start from a blank page. We have a free AI Policy Guide inside our MeridianMembers.
MeridianMembers brings practical family business guidance together in one place. Members receive quarterly live webinars, recorded video courses, a library of family business articles, playbooks and tools they can put to work in their businesses.
Become a MeridianMember to access our AI Policy Guide (a practical starting point you can adapt for your business) along with a growing collection of resources designed to strengthen your family business.
The Meridian team works with family-owned businesses to strengthen leadership, improve teams and profit, and prepare for successful generational transitions. Through coaching, consulting, succession planning, valuations, and strategic advisory services, Meridian guides family businesses to build stronger futures.
Frequently Asked Questions
We don’t recommend it. A company-approved paid version generally provides stronger privacy and security controls, but paying alone doesn’t make the tool private. Select the highest available privacy settings.
The person using, reviewing or approving the work remains responsible. AI is known for making mistakes. Maintain human supervision at all times.
A general guideline is to review the policy every 6 months since AI tools, privacy settings and workplace uses change quickly. A traditional once a year review may be too slow.
