Use AI at Work—Safely, Quietly, Effectively

A word to the wise—deliver better work faster without crossing any lines.

Author

Wade Kerzie
October 08, 2025

Right now, a lot of companies are reacting to AI with a blanket “no.” IT isn’t wrong to be cautious—but shutting everything off isn’t the long-term answer. We’ve seen this movie before. In the early days, some companies blocked Google. That didn’t last, and it shouldn’t with AI either.

Here’s a practical middle ground for beginners who want to do better work without touching proprietary information or breaking policy:

✅ What you can safely use

  • Public, customer-facing content: your company website, product pages, FAQs, press releases, quarterly reports.

  • Materials you already have legitimate access to (and that are non-sensitive): e.g., public spec sheets as PDFs, anonymized/role-permitted CSV exports, public marketing assets.

⛔ What you should not use

  • Confidential docs, customer PII, internal pricing/margins, unreleased financials, source code, roadmaps, anything labeled confidential/restricted, or anything your policy forbids.

Quiet productivity (no flair required)

You don’t have to broadcast how you work—just deliver better outcomes within policy. If you can already view and download a public-facing PDF or a permitted CSV, there’s nothing wrong with using an AI tool to summarize, compare, analyze, or reformat it instead of doing it all manually.

Two easy starter moves:

1) Public page → one-pager brief

Prompt (paste URL or page text):

Using only the content below (public web copy), create a one-page brief with: (1) who it’s for, (2) top three benefits, (3) a quick comparison vs. our previous model based on what’s stated, and (4) a short FAQ synthesized from the same content. Do not invent facts beyond the text provided.

2) Non-sensitive CSV → insights

Prompt (paste headers and sample rows, or upload where allowed):

From this CSV, produce: (a) top 5 trends with supporting stats, (b) anomalies worth a look, (c) two questions we should ask next, and (d) a short “what this means” summary for leadership. Do not include or infer any personal data.

Why this matters

This “quiet productivity” phase won’t last forever—policies will mature, just like they did with Google. Until then, be smart, stay inside the lines, and let your results speak for you. You can move faster today without violating rules or exposing sensitive data.

— Wade

Legal note: This newsletter is not legal advice. Always follow your company’s security, privacy, and data-handling policies. If your employer prohibits AI use, don’t use it. When in doubt, ask IT/Legal for written guidance.