AI at work: the 20 checks.

Most businesses did not decide to adopt AI. It arrived on people's phones, and now half the team drafts emails, quotes and rotas with it while nobody has written down a single rule. That isn't a discipline problem, it's a missing-rules problem.

Five blocks of four, ordered deliberately. The controls come before the productivity, because the cheapest mistake to fix is the one you have not made yet.

• 01 Write the rules down. One page, plain English, one named owner.
• 02 Protect the data first. A never paste list, and the training setting off.
• 03 Pick the job, not the tool. Time it before you change anything.
• 04 Check the work. A human signs anything with a price or a promise in it.
• 05 Make it stick. Half an hour of real training beats any webinar.

One rule carries the rest: the checks only count on a tool your business has procured. A personal AI account is an uncontracted processor. No approved tool yet means nothing about work goes in.

Tick boxes down the side, blank lines for your approved tools, who to ask and a review date. Print it, adapt it, add your own logo. No attribution needed.