It is one of the most common questions in the workplace: can I just paste this document into ChatGPT? The short answer: only if your organisation has made agreements about it. The longer answer is more nuanced, and worth knowing.

Free versions may use your input

With free consumer versions of AI tools, the information you enter can be used to train the models further. That means confidential documents, customer data or internal files could in principle surface elsewhere. For personal data it is also a GDPR breach if there is no legal basis and no data processing agreement.

What is allowed?

  • Business versions with a data processing agreement. Paid business subscriptions often include the agreement that your data is not used for training. Put this in place before employees start using it.
  • No unnecessary personal data. Anonymise or remove names, case numbers and other identifiable details where you can.
  • Clear policy. Employees want to know where the line is. A clear, short AI policy prevents both accidents and unnecessary hesitation.

The safest route: AI on your own data

A generic tool does not know your organisation and sends your input to an external party. A custom AI solution runs on your own documents, in an environment you control. For us that means, as standard: hosting within the EU, no unnecessary storage of personal data, and a source citation on every answer so everything stays verifiable. That way you benefit from AI without handing over sensitive information.

Our own systems are built privacy by design: no tracking, no cookies, and fully GDPR-compliant hosting within the EU. That is not an afterthought, it is the starting point.

Start with a short session

The fastest way to get your team working safely with AI is a practical session in which they learn what is and is not allowed, how to spot hallucinations, and how to draw up a workable AI policy. Our Safe AI use workshop does exactly that, on site or online.

Want to spar about safe AI use in your organisation? Book a no-obligation intro call, or first take the free AI scan.