ChatGPT (and the handful of similar tools, Claude, Gemini, Copilot) is the most useful piece of office software released in the last decade. It's also the one most likely to land a small business in an awkward conversation with a customer, a regulator or an employment lawyer. Both things are true at once.
What it's reasonable to use it for
- Drafting and rewriting emails, proposals, web copy and social posts.
- Summarising long documents, meeting notes or supplier paperwork.
- Brainstorming names, headlines, structures, questions for interviews.
- Explaining unfamiliar territory in plain English: a contract clause, a tax concept, a technical term in a quote.
- A "second pair of eyes" on something you've written, before it goes out.
The genuine risks, in plain English
- It makes things up. Names, figures, citations, references. It will sound confident either way. Always verify anything factual.
- It remembers what you tell it. Anything you paste in may be used to improve the model unless you're on a business plan that says otherwise. Treat the free version like a public forum.
- Your team will use it whether you allow it or not. The choice is between a sensible policy or an invisible free-for-all.
The one rule worth writing down
We use AI tools to help us think and write. We don't paste customer data, financials or anything confidential into a free AI tool. If in doubt, ask.
That single paragraph, signed off and shared with your team, gets you 90% of the safety with none of the bureaucracy. Add to it as your use grows. An AI Audit will turn it into a fuller, written policy your team can actually live by.
When generic chat stops being the right answer
ChatGPT is brilliant as a general-purpose assistant. It's less brilliant when the job is "do exactly this thing, exactly this way, every time, against our data". For that you stop paying per-seat for a generic chatbot and start thinking about a small, focused internal tool that wraps the model around your process. Same underlying AI, very different result.
So, should you use ChatGPT?
Yes. With eyes open, sensible boundaries, and a clear answer to "what are we actually using it for". That's the same answer I'd give about a new hire, a new supplier, or a new piece of kit. AI is just the latest version of a very old question: is this thing earning its keep?