(AI did not compose this)
Written by Ryan Childress, Business Manager at Ambit Solutions
Last month, I was tasked with writing our company’s acceptable use policy for AI. By the time I was ready to publish it, I had also added those lines☝️ to the bottom of my email signature. After writing the policy, I realized this statement was just as important—if not more so—than my contact information. Let me explain why.
To begin, I have to say I have been mesmerized by generative AI since the first public release of ChatGPT. It is a technological advancement that I truly did not think would be possible in my lifetime. It is much closer to the Jetsons (here’s a link for anyone who is too young for that reference) than I thought I would ever see. As a leader in a small business, I immediately wanted to explore every possible way it could give us a competitive advantage. It is an amazing tool, perfectly suited for so many tasks. I am still on that path of discovery, though I feel the path I am on has diverged from the majority of the business community.
From what I’ve observed, businesses appear to be adopting AI as quickly as they possibly can. The idea seems to be, if you don’t implement AI into every part of your digital operations now you will be left behind. To be fair, there is some truth to this, but I don’t believe it is the full truth.
Real Words
I’m curious what readers thought when they read those opening words, “Real Words from a Real Human”. Some may have thought, “That’s a strange thing to say.” or “Is this the start of a sci-fi story?”, but for those who have been following the wild ride of AI development over the last few months, the response will likely be the exact opposite. It will likely be a shock that in this post-generative AI world anyone would actually type out a blog post line by line, word by word, letter by letter.
It amazes how our expectations of authorship could have changed so quickly. A clarification like, “Real Words from a Real Human”, would have made zero sense to someone even a couple years ago. It really speaks to the power of AI to impersonate human communication. Now we have to ask ourselves, is this a good thing?
Since the industrial revolution we have seen companies moving at breakneck speeds to creatively remove all humans from their operations. Humans can be difficult to manage, unpredictable, and most importantly to these companies: expensive.Though these critiques of employees are often true, we must also recognize that people are the heart of all commerce. People are the point of all companies. And ultimately in a free market I believe people choose to do business with people. We don’t buy from companies, we buy from people. We buy things from people we know, like, or trust. That’s why even the largest companies in the world, who have eliminated just about every way for a human customer to interact with a human at the company, will pay millions of dollars to hire celebrities to endorse their products.
Now, companies have a new tool at their disposal, and many are using it to churn out as much marketing and customer service content as possible. I think this is a cost-savings measure that they cannot ultimately afford.
Human Words Matter
For those who have actually read this far, would you have made it this far if you had known it was written by AI? My bet is that you would not. Why is that?
I think it’s because human words matter. Words convey meaning, emotion, feeling, and truth. Words are one of the primary ways humans connect with one another. In a free market we buy, sell, influence, debate, endorse, evangelize; all this is an exchange of ideas and goods to make life better for humans. This is a uniquely human experience. Businesses who are able to relate to their customer’s needs best are the ones that stand the test of time.
In contrast, AI words just do not matter. While AI is able to pull from amazing human authors and iterate their words, they are at best a cheap imitation. They are emotionless, without experience, or relatability. Imagine if for my wife’s birthday this year, instead of a thoughtful gift or taking her on a date night, I have Gemini write a love letter to her. While she might appreciate the gesture, would this be a letter she truly cherished? I would argue, no. In the place of true thoughtfulness and human interaction, I gave her computer-generated text and zero human interaction. They are not my words and I didn’t even spend my time. Even if I wrote a very elaborate prompt, in the end all I have done is tried to outsource the expression of my love to a computer who can produce this “love letter” in about 5 seconds.
Let’s take this scenario one step further. Now let’s imagine I had Gemini write the love letter, but I passed it off as my own writing. Does that feel genuine to you? As a society, are we truly comfortable with this?
That feels wrong, doesn’t it?
Our Acceptable Use Policy for AI
So, let’s get into the actual policy details. First we define AI for the purposes of the policy:
“‘AI’ refers to a broad range of technologies that enable computers to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making.”
This is important because I genuinely believe that we are so early in the adoption of generative AI that people do not even understand the technology they are working with yet. The major step forward with this technology is not in the math it can do, it’s the language it uses to display its Artificial Intelligence. Historically it would take a human to explain an algebraic equation, even if a calculator could provide the answer. Not anymore.
The policy continues:
Ambit Solutions is an IT company that values relationships over everything else. Our clients are real people that we know and many of them choose Ambit because of this personal style of business that is clearly stated in two of our Core Values: “Know and Serve Others” and “Honesty and Integrity Matter”.
Why do your customers choose your company over others in the marketplace? For us, one of the primary reasons is human interaction. The solution was sold by a real human who established trust, it was then passed off to a team to implement that solution who came on site and spent time with that customer, then it was passed to a support team who knows most of our customers by name. Why would we fake any part of that interaction? What would we truly gain in the long run?
The policy continues:
While automation is helpful and often the best option, we know that business is ultimately about relationships. Our business is literally built on human-to-human communication, via telephony. Just as Ambit will not outsource our phone support to other companies and countries, we will not outsource or fake our client interactions with AI.
At the heart of our AI approach is a fundamental principle: technology should enhance—not replace or diminish—the client experience. This guide outlines our AI policy, emphasizing the use of these powerful tools to provide faster and more efficient service, offer more personalized solutions, enhance the quality of our communication, and ultimately free up our team to focus on what matters most – building stronger, more meaningful relationships with our clients.
Every decision regarding AI utilization will be evaluated through this lens: Does it strengthen our client relationships and/or improve their experience with our company?
Additionally, while we recognize the potential of AI to enhance efficiency and productivity in technical tasks, we also acknowledge the risk of dishonesty in communication with our clients.
Human emotions are always real and cannot be artificially generated. Caring about people cannot be artificially generated. Therefore, we prohibited using AI to generate content that conveys emotion or feeling; as this would be dishonest and lacking integrity to allow AI to falsely represent our feelings. Transparency is key—if people believe they’re engaging with a human, but the message is largely AI-generated, that is deceptive. Its use is limited to technical writing and objective actions that do not require emotional nuance. Also, passing off any fully AI generated/composed content, technical or emotive, as your own work is not acceptable.
Ultimately, we wanted to create a policy that would free our team up to use AI tools freely, without any worries about whether that use is moral or appropriate. We have all had the experience of having an AI engine compose something for us and then feeling strange about sharing it with others. Is it ok to share this as my own? We answered that question by making a distinction between emotive language and technical language. Want Grok to sum up a 1000 line spreadsheet for you? Great! What to use Grok to compose a “personalized” email to a sales client? Nope. We believe this type of communication will lose its impact as AI becomes more widespread. While this may not cover every scenario, we believe it provides strong guardrails for ethical AI adoption in our operations.
We also created these 7 Principles to sum up these complex thoughts:
7 AI Principles
Real People Deserve Real People
AI should inform, not compose.
AI should assist, not replace.
AI should be transparent, not deceptive.
AI should enhance, not impersonate.
Machines Process, Humans Connect
AI Can Draft, Humans Craft
The reason we want to put this type of content out is to start a conversation that we think needs to happen. And we want you all to know that authenticity and transparency matter to us. We will continue to do whatever we can to put our relationship with clients first.
So, what do you think? Do you agree with this stance? Let us know!
