What should you update first in your handbook for Ai?

Your handbook is the one document every employee can find, and right now most handbooks say nothing about Ai. Your team is already using it. The handbook should say how. The Ai section is the update that matters most, because it is the one that protects people, data, and decisions while the rest of the rewrite waits.

The section has five parts:

• Ai acceptable use: approved tools, prohibited uses, who checks the work.
• Confidentiality and data protection: what never goes into an Ai tool.
• Accuracy and verification: every Ai draft gets a human check before it goes out.
• Ethical use: do not use Ai to mislead or pass off someone else's work.
• IP guidance: do not paste proprietary or copyrighted material into a tool you do not control.

What goes in the Ai section first?

This is the core of the update. It names the approved tools, the prohibited uses, and who checks the work.

Approved tools means a short list by name. The tools your team may use for work, and what each one is for. When people see the approved list, they know what they can use. When they do not see a list, they guess.

Prohibited uses means the line. Ai may never make a decision about a person on its own. It may never decide who gets an interview, who gets the job, who gets a raise, or who gets let go. A human owns those decisions. Ai may never write the final version of anything that goes to an employee, like a termination letter, a pay decision, or a disciplinary note, without a human reading it first.

Write both lists in plain words. The section fails the moment someone has to ask whether a use is allowed.

What data rule belongs in the handbook?

This is the rule most handbooks skip, and the one that causes the most damage when it is missing.

Never paste private information into an Ai tool. No names tied to pay, performance, health, or discipline. No medical notes. No Social Security numbers, bank details, or home addresses. No confidential business information like salaries, layoff plans, or internal investigations.

If your team needs Ai to work with sensitive information, that needs a tool with the right protections, not a free chatbot. Say so in the handbook. Then name the approved tool, or say the work stays with a human until one is in place.

Who checks the output?

Every Ai draft is a first draft. Someone reads it, checks the facts, and owns it before it goes out. That is the accuracy rule, and it belongs in writing.

Ai sounds certain even when it is wrong. It can invent a rule that does not exist, or quote a law that changed. The handbook should say who checks the output, by role. For a job post, the hiring manager. For a policy summary, HR. For an employee message, the person sending it.

What about ethical use and IP?

Two short clauses finish the section. First, ethical use: do not use Ai to mislead, to copy someone else's work and pass it off, or to make a decision you would not defend in person. Second, IP guidance: do not paste proprietary or copyrighted material into a tool you do not control, and do not present Ai output as original work without a human check.

Keep both clauses short. One paragraph each is enough.

What about state rules?

Candidate notice is required in New York City under Local Law 144. Illinois HB 3773 includes a notice duty, but IDHR has not issued rules on timing and form. In California and Texas, telling candidates is good practice even where no notice rule is stated. The rules are not the same everywhere. If your team hires or works across state lines, the handbook should say that Ai use follows the strictest rule that applies to that person, and that the policy gets reviewed when a state rule changes. Do not write state-specific duties into the handbook unless counsel has reviewed them for your business.

How do you roll the update out?

Do not email the new section and call it done. Bring the team together for thirty minutes. Read the section out loud. Walk through one good example and one bad example. Then ask the team what they are already using, and add the tools worth keeping to the approved list.

Date the section. Review it twice a year. The tools change every month. The rules in it do not.

What to do next

Write the Ai section this week, then work through the rest of the handbook at your own pace. FYHR Pro is free with an account, no card required, and a safe place to practice before you roll a policy out to the team.

HR guidance, not legal advice.