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Small-business field guide · Edition 2026-10-08.1

One useful task.
One honest test.

A practical workshop for drafts you can check. Six original worksheets, a worked example, and a decision to keep, change or stop. No invented success stories.

Educational edition. Independent specialist review and reader testing remain pending. Hypothetical examples are not business evidence.

Workers & business owners · 15-minute exercise

Task-to-Test Planner

A bounded experiment for one recurring task—not a prediction about your job.

  1. Name one task and the person who uses its output. Be more specific than “write reports”.
  2. Describe the bottleneck: too many inputs, unclear instructions, repetitive drafting, or decisions that need expertise.
  3. Choose one draft or organising step. Keep the final decision with a person.
  4. Write three observable acceptance criteria and one stop condition.
  5. Compare with your normal process, including setup, checking and correction time.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Help me test one recurring task. Ask what result is needed, what approved inputs exist, what mistakes matter, and who can check the output. Suggest one bounded draft step or say AI is unsuitable. Produce three acceptance criteria, a stop rule and a manual fallback. Do not invent facts, savings or a job-risk score. Do not request sensitive records.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Can a reviewer check every important output against an approved input?
  • Is the test reversible and separate from live actions?
  • Would the experiment still be useful if the result were “do not use AI”?
Fill and download this worksheet →
Anyone briefing an AI tool · 15-minute exercise

Context and Boundaries Card

A handover that explains what matters, what is unknown, and what must not happen.

  1. State the outcome and audience. Specify what this task does not cover.
  2. List the authoritative documents with version dates and owners.
  3. Explain the operational reason for important rules, not just the rules themselves.
  4. Separate facts, assumptions and unanswered questions.
  5. Name the reviewer and actions requiring permission. Set a review date for the card.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Turn my non-sensitive notes into a task handover. Organise outcome, approved sources, constraints, unknowns, prohibited actions and human approvals. Keep assumptions visibly separate from facts. Ask about missing rules instead of inventing them. A prompt is guidance, not a security control; identify which restrictions need actual permissions.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Does an outsider know which document wins if sources conflict?
  • Are unknowns explicit rather than filled with plausible guesses?
  • Are permissions enforced outside the prompt where necessary?
Fill and download this worksheet →
Anyone reviewing AI output · 15-minute exercise

Output Check Lab

A reusable acceptance-test sheet and practice spotting plausible mistakes.

  1. Choose the actual decision the output supports.
  2. For each important claim, name the source a reviewer can check.
  3. Create a normal case, a missing-information case and an exception case.
  4. Check for omissions, invented commitments, incorrect calculations and unsupported recommendations.
  5. Reject or revise failures. Repeat the checks after revision and record what still needs a specialist.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Review this draft against only the approved inputs I provide. Return a table: claim or omission, supporting input, pass/fail/unknown, and correction. Flag unsupported claims even if plausible. Do not manufacture citations. Do not call the work safe or compliant. Suggest tests for normal, missing-information and exception cases.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Does every pass have a traceable reason?
  • Are omissions checked as well as sentences that are present?
  • Is the cost of a wrong answer reflected in who reviews it?
Fill and download this worksheet →
Small teams deciding whether to continue · 20-minute exercise

Pilot Decision Sheet

A keep, change or stop decision supported by your own observations.

  1. Choose a fixed batch of representative, low-risk tasks. Record the usual time and quality.
  2. Measure briefing, generation, checking and correction separately. Include setup and tool charges.
  3. Record mistakes by consequence, not just count. Protect the trial from customers and live actions.
  4. Ask staff whether the new process creates extra work elsewhere.
  5. Compare observed quality and total effort. Keep, change or stop; choose a date to review the decision.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Help me compare a limited trial with its baseline. Use only my measured inputs. Include setup, review, correction and tool costs. Show the calculation, missing evidence and quality failures. Recommend keep, change or stop with conditions. Do not invent ROI, future savings or customer outcomes.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Are baseline and assisted tasks comparable?
  • Is checking and rework included?
  • Would a serious quality failure override a time saving?
Fill and download this worksheet →
Small teams setting boundaries · 25-minute exercise

Small-Business AI-Use Starter Policy

An editable operational policy to discuss with your team—not a compliance certificate.

  1. List approved tools, accounts, owners and permitted low-risk uses.
  2. Create a never-enter list and clarify approved data settings.
  3. Keep a named person responsible for factual checks and final publication.
  4. Require separate approval for external messages, payments, deletions and access changes.
  5. Tell staff how to report a mistake without blame. Set a review date and update after incidents.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Help draft an operational AI-use policy from my approved tools and low-risk uses. Include prohibited data, human review, actual permission controls, staff training, incident handling and a review date. Keep placeholders for missing facts. Flag legal questions for qualified review; do not certify compliance or assume the Privacy Act applies identically to every business.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Can staff identify the approved account and never-enter list?
  • Are actual access controls separate from policy wording?
  • Have applicable obligations and exceptions been checked?
Fill and download this worksheet →
People depending on an AI service · 20-minute exercise

Provider Exit Checklist

A tested record of what you can recover, reuse and revoke.

  1. Inventory documents, instructions, decision records, integrations and provider-held memory.
  2. Attempt a non-sensitive export. Record its format and whether another tool can use it.
  3. Separate your source records from model-specific summaries, embeddings and hidden state.
  4. Rehearse revoking access and doing the task manually. Check retention and deletion terms.
  5. Record verified, unverified or unavailable for each capability. Review after terms or pricing changes.

Your worksheet

No confidential information. Filling this sheet does not send data to an AI provider. Blank prompts can be copied separately.

Optional prompt · use only approved inputs

Audit my dependency on this service using only evidence I provide. Separate documented export rights from capabilities actually tested. List what may not transfer, access revocation, retention questions, switching effort and a manual fallback. Use verified/unverified/unavailable. Do not invent contract terms, legal clauses or guarantees of portability.

Using this prompt in another service sends your inputs to that service. Check its settings first. It is not a tested guarantee of output quality.

Before you use the result

  • Have you attempted the export, not just read a marketing claim?
  • Can someone find the original rules without the provider?
  • Does the fallback work if the service is unavailable today?
Fill and download this worksheet →

A week that produces evidence

  1. Choose one low-risk task and its reviewer. Complete the task and context cards.
  2. Write normal, missing-information and exception tests before opening the tool.
  3. Use public or invented inputs. Compare with the usual process and record all effort.
  4. Review every important result. A serious failure means stop and revise the workflow.
  5. Decide keep, change or stop. Set a review date and retain a working manual alternative.

This is a suggested sequence, not a promised completion time or an adoption deadline. Move at the pace your evidence and safeguards allow.