Why should a small business (or any business) need AI to run xyz function?
Let’s say you want to create proposals and have older proposals and current products and other info at hand. I.e. how long does it take to create a proposal without AI? Let’s say you have some institutional knowledge and it takes you 1-2 hours to create a proposal.
How long do you think an AI software ABC would take to create an initial proposal from older ones and with some parameters?
It is safe to assume it would take minutes not an hour. If even minutes, but seconds. Of course you have to review and edit maybe, but now it took you 10 minutes instead of an hour, as AI pieced it all together. There is a substantial problem here if you are using the public AI engines. and feed them several proposals and the parameters. There is little if any privacy as hackers have shown they can get data from ChatGPT and other AI software ( not to pick on OpenAI?) any public AI has similar issues (like Grok, Perplexity, Claude) with all of them.
A small business has to create it’s own instance with software and private customer data to give you the massive productivity improvements.
especially the more specific data that is placed into the AI instance (if it is a public one what is the guarantee it will never be leaked?)
Instead this is what must be done:
Step-by-Step Guide: Implementing AI Guardrails for Company Data
- Assess Data & Use Cases
- Inventory all company data and AI models.
- Classify data sensitivity and regulatory requirements.
- Design Technical Controls
- Encrypt data at rest and in transit.
- Implement RBAC/PBAC and strong authentication.
- Use data masking/anonymization for sensitive fields.
- Integrate privacy-preserving computation (differential privacy, federated learning).
- Deploy Guardrail Tools
- Select and integrate middleware, APIs, and monitoring platforms for input/output validation and content filtering.
- Automate policy enforcement and anomaly detection.
- Establish Governance
- Form cross-functional governance bodies (ethics boards, risk committees).
- Define and document policies for data access, retention, explainability, and incident response.
- Ensure Regulatory Compliance
- Conduct DPIAs and risk assessments.
- Map internal controls to external regulations.
- Maintain audit logs and documentation.
- Monitor, Audit, and Improve
- Continuously monitor AI activity and guardrail effectiveness.
- Regularly audit systems and update policies/tools as threats and regulations evolve.
If this is not on your radar then let’s talk and make it happen. Let’s use AI efficiently and safely – now and in future!
Also when you give AI instances questions – these 4 items must be included:
- Role
- Task
- Instruction
- Data
The more specificity the better.
I.e. you want the AI to develop a web page
- You are a 10 year web developer and designer
- create a single web page
- It must include ABC company logo and information to promote latest product XYZ
- Here is the info…
The more specifics and given a specific role the less likely AI will hallucinate!!