Artificial intelligence tools exploded into the workplace almost overnight. What started as a novelty — typing a question into a chatbot — has quickly evolved into something much bigger: employees using AI to draft client communications, summarize meetings, research complex topics, and even generate financial or legal language.
Tools like Microsoft Copilot offer tremendous productivity gains. But they also open the door to new security risks, especially when employees don’t fully understand where their data goes and who can see it.
As a business owner, you’re right to feel both excited and uneasy. AI can help your team work faster. But without the right guardrails, it can expose your proprietary information in ways traditional cyber threats never could.
Let’s walk through what you need to know to keep your organization safe.
One of the biggest misconceptions about AI tools, especially free ones, is that they are harmless. After all, you’re just typing in a question. What’s the risk?
A lot, actually.
When employees enter anything into a public AI tool, that information may be:
Stored indefinitely
Used to train the company’s AI models
Reviewed by human moderators
Shared with third parties
Used for targeted marketing or monetization
If an employee uses an AI tool to draft a letter and includes a client’s name, bank information or other proprietary details, that data is no longer private. Without the right cyber security measures in place, it leaves your network and enters a system you do not control.
That’s a serious business risk — one that cyber insurance carriers, auditors and regulators are paying close attention to. Unfortunately, bad actors who thrive on lax cyber security practices are also paying attention.
This is where Microsoft Copilot is different — and why Gross Mendelsohn selected it as our firmwide AI platform.
Copilot lives inside your organization’s Microsoft 365 environment. That means:
Your company’s existing security policies apply
Data stays within your tenant, not the open internet
Multi‑factor authentication protects access
Access is limited to only the information the user already has permission to see
It’s a controlled, enterprise‑grade AI solution — not a public chatbot absorbing your confidential data for its own learning purposes.
But make no mistake: even with Copilot, employees still need to use AI responsibly. Secure tools only stay secure when users follow secure practices.
AI tools are powerful, but they’re not perfect. They make mistakes, sometimes confidently producing incorrect or entirely fabricated information. In the AI world, this is called a “hallucination.”
Employees shouldn’t rely on AI to be the final word. Instead, AI should help them:
Start a task
Organize information
Draft content
Speed up repetitive work
But humans must remain the editors, reviewers and final decision-makers.
Think of AI like a turbocharged assistant. It’s fast and helpful, but it doesn’t know when it’s wrong.
Every organization handles sensitive data, such as:
Internal financial data
Employee records
Client names
Legal documents
Social Security or bank account numbers
Strategic plans and proposals
Employees must treat all of these as off‑limits in any AI system that is not approved by your IT team.
Public AI tools are effectively giant data‑collection engines. If it’s free, your data is the product. And once that information is entered, you can’t pull it back.
Even with Microsoft Copilot, where protections exist, your team should follow the same practice we teach internally here at Gross Mendelsohn: if you wouldn’t email sensitive information unencrypted, don’t paste it into an AI tool.
Most businesses never plan for AI adoption. Employees bring in these tools on their own, long before leadership realizes how widely they’re being used.
That leaves organizations exposed.
Smart business owners should act now before AI becomes another shadow‑IT problem.
At a minimum, your policies should cover:
Which AI tools are approved
What data can or cannot be entered
How employees should verify AI‑generated output
Rules for meeting recordings, transcriptions and storage
Who is responsible for monitoring compliance
AI policies are not optional.
AI tools evolve monthly — sometimes weekly. New features appear before employees understand the old ones. That speed creates real business risk if your IT team isn’t involved in evaluating and approving new tools.
Business owners should assume:
Employees will try new AI apps they find online
AI platforms will become increasingly integrated into workflows
Hackers will use AI to improve phishing, impersonation and data‑theft techniques
Regulators will demand more documentation on how you protect client information
AI is here to stay. But so are the risks.
Choosing the right AI tools, and deploying them safely, requires more than enthusiasm. It requires strategy, governance and strong cyber security.
If you’re unsure whether your team is using AI safely, or you want help creating responsible‑use policies, our cyber security specialists are here to support you. We can:
Assess your current AI risks
Help you implement secure AI tools like Microsoft Copilot
Tighten data‑privacy protections
Train your employees on safe AI usage
AI can absolutely unlock productivity — but only when implemented with security in mind.
Contact us here or call 410.685.5512 with any questions.