Focus this month | Risks of AI tools in business and how to manage them
Risks of AI tools in business and how to manage them
AI tools have found their way into most businesses whether IT signed off on them or not.
Someone in marketing is using ChatGPT to draft copy, someone in finance is feeding numbers into a chatbot to summarise a report, and someone in HR is using an AI note-taker on interview calls.
Most of it happens quietly, with good intentions, and without anyone checking what happens to the data afterwards.
Banning AI tools outright rarely works as staff either find a workaround or stop being honest about what they're using. The better approach for any UK business is understanding where the real risks of AI sit and making sure your business is protected.
Data going somewhere you didn't plan for
Free AI tools have to make money somehow, and that's often through using what you type in to train future versions of the model. Paste a client contract into a chatbot to get it summarised, and that contract may now be sitting on a server you have no control over, potentially feeding into someone else's results down the line.
This is the data risk that catches most businesses out, mainly because it doesn't feel like a breach, it just quietly leaves the building. It's exactly the kind of thing our data loss prevention service is designed to catch, by looking at where company data actually goes once it leaves your systems.
Confident answers that are simply wrong
AI tools are built to sound assured, even when they're inventing something entirely. Ask for a summary of a policy document and it might produce a clause that doesn't exist.
Anything AI-generated that ends up in a client-facing document, a contract, or a business decision needs a human checking it against the source.
Shadow AI use across the business
Most IT teams have a reasonable idea of what software is installed on company devices. AI tools blur that picture, because so many of them run through a browser and need no installation at all. Someone can be using four or five different AI platforms and IT would have no visibility of any of it.
That gap makes it hard to enforce any AI policy, because you can't manage what you don't know is happening. Our endpoint security work, powered by tools like WatchGuard, gives us that visibility so we can see what's actually running on company devices rather than guessing at it.
Where backup and recovery fits in
Even with good policies in place, mistakes happen. Someone pastes the wrong document, an AI tool suggests a change that gets accepted without proper review, a file gets altered based on bad information. Having a solid backup and recovery setup means an AI-related slip doesn't turn into a lasting problem for the business.
A few practical steps that don't involve a ban on AI
Agree which AI tools are approved for use, and make sure staff know what they are
Set clear rules on what can and can't be pasted into an AI tool, particularly client data and anything covered by GDPR
Require a human check on anything AI-generated before it reaches a client or informs a real decision
Ask around the business to find out what's already being used, so your AI policy reflects reality rather than guesswork
Used properly, AI tools can save real time. The businesses getting the most out of AI aren't the ones avoiding it, they're the ones who've taken a bit of time to set boundaries first.
If you'd like help putting a sensible AI policy together for your business, get in touch to discuss your options with our team of experts.
