How Small Businesses Can Use AI Safely: ChatGPT and Copilot Breakdown
When ChatGPT first went viral, a lot of people weren’t quite sure what to think. Fast‑forward to today, and the excitement is still sky‑high, but so are the questions. With AI showing up in every corner of our work lives, those questions are more important than ever. AI can absolutely help small businesses work faster, smarter, and more consistently, but only if you use it safely. This is the same guidance we use inside Centre Technologies, so feel free to borrow it for your own business.Featured in this AI Safety Breakdown:
- What the Risks Actually Are
- Recommendations for Using Free-Versions of AI in Your Business
- "Should I Be Using Copilot for This?"
- What's Safe (and Not Safe) to Do In ChatGPT
- YouTube Demo: Build Your Own AI Agent w/ M365 Copilot
- Building Your Own Agent: When, Why, and How
Why AI Still Feels Uncertain (Even Though Everyone is Using It)
We hear versions of this almost every week:
- “How do we use AI without risking our data?”
- “What’s safe to type into ChatGPT?”
- “Is there a ‘right’ tool for business use?”
These questions are at the heart of why AI feels uncertain to use in day-to-day business tasks. With the rapid growth of AI, business owners feel unsure about how to use it safely (you're not alone).
So where's the fear? Why are we still so warry of AI, especially in small businesses?
Accidentally Sharing Sensitive Information
It’s surprisingly easy to paste something into ChatGPT that was never meant to leave your organization.
Worries About Data Being Stored or Reused by AI Tools
Public AI tools (like ChatGPT and free versions of Copilot) sometimes store prompts to help train their models. That’s fine for general questions, but not great for anything confidential.
AI-Powered Cyber Threats
Scammers are now using AI to create fake invoices, impersonate employees, or generate extremely convincing phishing emails.
A General Sense of the "Unknown"
AI evolves quickly. It’s hard to know what’s safe without clear guidelines.
The risks are entirely real. But so are the opportunities.
Recommendations for Safe AI Use in the Workplace
Here are the core rules we follow internally, written in plain English for everyday business users.
- Don't put confidential or customer information into ChatGPT.
A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn't post it publicly online, don't paste it into a public AI tool. - Stick to public information in consumer AI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, free versions of Copilot, etc.)
Safe examples: Blog drafts, marketing ideas, generic emails, brainstorming
Not safe: Private financials, internal system details, proprietary code, HR or employee information - Use "History Off" whenever possible.
This prevents your conversation from being used for future training (though the data may still be stored temporarily). - Only use official, verified versions of ChatGPT.
There are plenty of fake or compromised AI apps out there. Furthermore, consider the security permissions for ChatGPT. Even at their highest paid levels, your information is at risk (and used to train their LLMs) - Follow your company's privacy policy and NDAs.
Policies don’t disappear just because AI is involved. - Don't connect AI tools to your system without proper review.
Any AI tool you integrate should go through a Vendor Risk Assessment (VRA). If you don’t have one, we can help you build it.
Where Microsoft Copilot Fits in
Here’s the good news: Using AI at work doesn’t have to feel risky.
Microsoft Copilot gives you the benefits of AI without exposing your data to the open internet.
This is because:
- Copilot runs inside your Microsoft 365 environment
- It uses your organization’s existing security, permissions, and access controls
- It only works with the data your employees already have access to
- Your prompts and outputs aren’t used to train the model
- It follows the same compliance and governance rules your business already relies on
If ChatGPT is like going to a public library, Copilot is like having a private librarian inside your secure office. And with Copilot, you can do work that you shouldn’t do in ChatGPT, like:
- Summarizing internal emails
- Drafting confidential documents
- Reviewing meeting transcripts
- Building reports using private company data
- Creating role‑specific “agents” to automate tasks for sales, HR, marketing, finance, IT, and more
This is where your Copilot Adoption Roadmap really comes into play, Things like data labeling, access controls, and governance make Copilot dramatically safer than dropping internal info into ChatGPT.
How All This Connects to AI Agents and Agent Building for SMBs
Here recently we've been talking a lot about how businesses can now build AI agents to help streamline their businesses safely. These agents should be guided, secure mini‑workflows that handle repetitive tasks for different departments.
But here’s the key:
- You cannot safely build business agents using public ChatGPT.
- You can safely build agents inside Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio.
Copilot agents know what they should access (your existing security, sensitivity labels, identity and permissions, Microsoft Graph, data governance and content lifecycle rules) and just as importantly, what they shouldn’t.
This lets your teams automate real work safely:
- Sales: meeting prep, follow‑ups, proposal drafts
- HR: onboarding, job descriptions, policy updates
- Marketing: campaign ideas, briefs, content outlines
- Finance: summaries, planning inputs, risk insights
- IT: ticket triage, documentation, device recommendations
These are not safe to automate using public ChatGPT, but they are designed for Copilot.
AI takeaways for smbs: When to Use ChatGPT and when to Use Copilot
Remember, AI engines (just like agents!) are built to serve a purpose. We're not saying don't use ChatGPT, what we're saying is know which tool is right for the task you're trying to accomplish.
Use ChatGPT for:
- Creativity
- Brainstorming
- Public information
- Learning
- Drafting early ideas
Use Microsoft Copilot for:
- Anything involving business data
- Emails, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive content
- Customer information
- Internal documents
- Department-level workflows
- Building safe, secure AI agents
Demo: Build Your Own AI Agent w/ M365 Copilot
Need Help Building Safe AI Workflows or Copilot Agents?
If you're unsure of where to start, we're here to simplify the noise.
We can help you:
- Build safe AI usage guidelines
- Create an AI readiness checklist (or request ours!)
- Train your employees
- Set up proper governance
- Roll out Microsoft Copilot (here's a pricing breakdown)
- Build AI agents designed for your business (use this roadmap to get started)
- Close the security gaps that most SMBs don’t even know they have
AI is powerful. But with the right guardrails, it’s also incredibly empowering.
Whenever you're ready, we can walk you through it step by step.
