Employee Handbooks 2026: New Rules for AI in the Workplace

"Shadow IT" used to mean an employee installing Dropbox without asking IT. Now, "Shadow AI" is an employee pasting the company's Q3 strategy into ChatGPT to "make it sound better."

The Security Nightmare

Companies like Samsung and Apple learned the hard way: Public AI models ingest data. New handbooks are explicit: "Do not input proprietary data into public LLMs. Immediate termination."

The "Disclosure" Policy

Managers don't mind if you use AI to write an email, but they want to know. The new standard policy: "AI may be used for drafting, but the employee is 100% responsible for the accuracy of the final output." You can't blame the bot if the numbers are wrong.

The Skill Gap

Companies are now offering "AI Stipends." "We will pay for your ChatGPT Plus subscription, but you must use the Enterprise login." They realize they can't stop it, so they are trying to contain it inside a secure perimeter.

Conclusion

If your company doesn't have an AI policy, writing one is your top priority. Ambiguity is where the data leaks happen.