The way to agree the rules of AI at work is to write them with your team, in one working session, and keep them to a single page. Rules written by the people who will use them get followed. A fifty-page policy written by nobody the team knows gets ignored, while the actual use of AI carries on unofficially around it.
Why the rules matter more than the tools
Most AI rollouts start with tools and hope people catch up. MIT's 2025 report The GenAI Divide found that 95 percent of enterprise generative AI pilots deliver no measurable return, and names a learning gap inside organisations as the barrier rather than the technology. We covered the research in why AI rollouts fail. Agreed rules close part of that gap: they tell people what safe, useful AI-enabled work looks like here, in this business.
Start from how people actually use AI today
Before writing anything, find out what is already happening. In most teams, some people quietly use AI every day, some tried it once and stopped, and some avoid it entirely. Each person's Working Profile, their own working with me manual, can capture their AI confidence and the support they need, so the rules get written for the team you actually have. The goal is work done well, never AI use for its own sake, and the rules should say so.
What your AI rules should cover
- What AI may be used for here, with real examples from your own work.
- What never goes into an AI tool: client data, personal data, anything confidential.
- How AI-assisted work is checked before it goes out, and who owns the result.
- Being open with each other about what was AI-assisted, so trust holds.
- Where to take questions, and what to do when something goes wrong.
Agree them in one session
Put the team in a room for an hour with a blank page and the list above. Let the people who use AI most explain what helps, and the people with doubts say what worries them. Write the rules in plain language, in your team's own words, and give them an owner and a review date. One page, agreed by everyone, beats a perfect document nobody has read.
Turn the rules into habit with a weekly rhythm
Rules stick when they meet practice regularly. A weekly rhythm of small experiments, try one AI-assisted task, share what worked at the team check-in, adjust, is what turns training into habit. This is how the AI adoption module works: profiles capture where each person is, the team agrees the rules, and the weekly rhythm makes the change real.
What to leave out
Two things do not belong in your AI rules. Targets for how much AI people should use: more use is the wrong goal, better work is the right one. And monitoring of individuals: watching people's AI activity corrodes the trust the rules exist to build, and the moment rules become surveillance, honest conversation about AI stops.
If you want the rules agreed, the profiles built, and the rhythm running in a single day, book the Working With Me workshop. It runs from £2,000 and includes a four-week platform trial.
Common questions
Does a small business need an AI policy
Yes, but a short one. One agreed page covering what AI is for, what never goes into it, and how work is checked will do more than a long formal policy, because people will actually follow it.
What should AI rules at work cover
Approved uses with real examples, what must never go into AI tools, how AI-assisted work gets checked, openness about AI use within the team, and where questions go.
How do we keep AI rules current
Give the page an owner and a review date, and let the weekly rhythm surface what needs to change. When an experiment shows a rule is wrong or missing, update the page the same week.