A short AI usage policy you can adopt, a sheet that works out which tier each of your AI uses falls into, and a record of who was briefed on what. Word and Excel, editable, free.
Where should it go?
Give me an email address and the download link arrives in a minute. That is the whole exchange: no account, no call, and you are not added to any list by doing this.
What is in the pack
- AI Usage Policy (Word). Eleven short sections, deliberately one to two pages. What staff may and may not put into an AI tool, who checks the output, who is responsible, and what happens when something goes wrong. Everything you are meant to replace is marked.
- AI Inventory (Excel). One row per AI use, with dropdowns for the questions that decide which tier it falls into, and a sheet explaining how to classify. Three worked examples included, one of which lands in high risk.
- AI Literacy Record (Excel). Who was briefed, on what, when, and when a refresher is due.
- README. Where to start, and an honest section on how much of this is likely to apply to you.
Who it is for
- Anyone whose staff have started using AI tools and who has nothing written down about it.
- Anyone who has been asked by a client, an insurer or a tender for their AI policy and does not have one.
- Anyone using software that scores or ranks job applicants, which is the one high-risk use an ordinary business is genuinely likely to meet.
- Anyone who was quoted for a certified AI literacy programme and suspected it was more than they needed.
Start with the inventory, not the policy
The instinct is to open the policy first, because that is the document with the official-sounding name. It is the wrong order. A policy written before you know what you actually use ends up generic, which is another way of saying it ends up useless.
Fill in the inventory first. Most businesses doing this find at least one thing they had forgotten was AI, usually a feature that arrived in a software update and was described as smart matching rather than as AI. Then write the policy, which takes about twenty minutes once you know what you are writing about.
What it does not do
It does not make you compliant, and anything claiming to do that in a download is selling something. There is no registration scheme for ordinary business use of AI and no certificate to obtain. What this gives you is the thing you would otherwise have to write from a blank page, and a defensible answer to what have you actually done about it.
General information, not legal advice. A template is a starting point to adapt to your own situation. Version 1.0, checked 7 August 2026 against Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.
The reading behind it
- The EU AI Act in plain English, which explains the tiers the inventory asks you to choose between.
- AI literacy is now a legal obligation, which is what the literacy record is evidence for.
- Using AI to recruit staff, if the inventory puts one of your rows in the high-risk tier.
- The EU changed the AI Act deadlines, if you are working from advice written before July 2026.