Most asked
Do we need an AI policy, and when should we write it?
Short answer
If more than one employee uses a computer at work, you have questions to face. Write the policy alongside your operational audit, not before it and not after an incident. Doing both at once means the guardrails reflect what is actually happening rather than what leadership assumes.
Everyone is racing to use AI. Very few are planning for it. You would expect AI policy to be a standing boardroom topic by now. Instead there is silence outside of IT circles.
Maybe you do not need a policy. But unless you think about it, you will not know until something goes wrong or clients start seeing you as out of step. Reviewing even a draft policy is a solid opening move if you have employees, especially younger employees. It will raise questions you have not considered but need to.
It is entirely appropriate for IT to drive the discussion, if you have an IT person on staff. Most small and mid-sized businesses do not. In that case you will learn about needing a policy only after you have a problem, and by then it may be too late.
The smart sequence is to establish your policy while you are doing your audit. That overlap is what most companies miss. Systems, performance, and governance examined in a single discovery loop means the guardrails are written against what is actually happening rather than against what someone imagined. Strategy meets reality. Risk meets readiness. If you have not set your AI policy yet, maybe do not launch another chatbot this week.