By Phil Gee · AI Academy, Southport
When you're getting started with AI, it's tempting to paste in whatever you're working on, whether that's a customer email, a spreadsheet or a contract. Most of the time that's fine. But there are a few things you should think twice about, and the easiest way to remember them is what I call the postcard rule: if you wouldn't be happy writing it on a postcard that anyone could read, don't paste it into an AI tool.
In practice, that means keeping out things like passwords, bank or card details, and personal information about your customers or staff, such as full addresses, health details or anything they've shared with you in confidence. If you need help with a document that contains that kind of detail, remove or replace the names and numbers first. Swapping "Mrs Jones at 14 High Street" for "Customer A" costs you ten seconds and removes the risk.
It's also worth having a quick look at the privacy settings in whichever tool you use, because they differ and they change. Most let you control whether your conversations are used to improve the product. A few minutes now means you can use AI with confidence, knowing you've got sensible habits in place. If you handle other people's data in your business, this is well worth getting right from the start.
Not sure what's safe for your business? Book a free chat with me and we'll go through it together.