Drafting an AI use policy for your office
Listen to this lesson
Nigerian voice narration
Fictional training case. Staff across the office are already using ChatGPT and similar tools informally, with no guidance on what can be pasted in. After a near-miss where someone nearly shared a staff list externally, the Director wants a one-page AI use policy before an actual data breach happens. Work through the example, identify the evidence needed and practise the method with cleared or synthetic inputs. Any additional figures in the explanation are separate practice examples, not claimed rows in a downloadable file.
Worked example
Ask AI to draft a policy covering four pillars: which tools are approved, what data must never be entered (personal data, classified or procurement-sensitive documents), the requirement for human review before anything leaves the office, and how staff should report a mistake if one happens. Keep the draft in plain language, not legal jargon, since every staff member must be able to follow it. Send the draft to the legal adviser and the data protection officer to check alignment with the NDPA 2023 and the existing ICT policy, since AI does not know your organisation's specific regulatory obligations. Only after that review does the Director sign and circulate it.
The method
Draft-then-route: let AI produce the plain-language first draft covering the four required pillars, then route it through the two human gatekeepers (legal, data protection) whose sign-off actually gives the document force — AI drafting and policy authority are kept strictly separate steps.
Worked practice and common mistakes
The policy should name the reporting path for mistakes as well as prohibited inputs and allowed uses. Deleting a chat is not the only response to a possible exposure. Preserve appropriate incident details and notify the authorised internal contact. Legal and data-protection review inform formal approval; neither the AI draft nor a staff member’s informal preference creates policy authority.
Review before using the result
Confirm the policy explicitly names prohibited data categories, includes a reporting path for mistakes, and has been seen by legal and the data protection officer before circulation.
Your workplace practice
Use the recommended free assistant with this lesson's fictional example. Draft a one-page AI use policy for a Nigerian public office: acceptable tools, prohibited inputs, mandatory human verification, confidentiality, and consequences for misuse. Plain language. Keep a copy of the input and draft. Compare the result with the verification steps above, record any correction, and retain placeholders where evidence is missing. The expected result is a checked draft for human review, not an automatically approved decision. Course examples and practice responses are fictional; amounts, dates, rules and thresholds are not official guidance or supplier quotations.
Open Claude (free tier) and paste this prompt there. Policy writing with nuance — Claude is strongest on balanced rules.
Draft a one-page AI use policy for a Nigerian public office: acceptable tools, prohibited inputs, mandatory human verification, confidentiality, and consequences for misuse. Plain language.
Why this tool: Policy writing with nuance — Claude is strongest on balanced rules.
Hit a free limit? Switch to ChatGPT or Gemini and continue — the prompt works in any assistant.