AI Governance
It usually arrives with a renewal or a new engagement letter: a questionnaire with a section on AI. Which AI tools do you use? Does our data go into them? Do you have a written policy? For a bookkeeping or accounting firm the questions get pointed fast, because the data is tax figures, payroll and bank details. The firms that answer in an hour are not the ones with the best memory. They are the ones that already wrote the answers down.
What the AI section usually asks
Most AI questions fall into five groups: which AI tools you use, which accounts they run on (business or personal), what client information may go into them, whether the vendor trains on that information, and who reviews AI-written work before it reaches the client. Some add a request for a copy of your written policy.
None of these are trick questions. Each one maps to a column in a simple register.
Answer from a register, not from memory
Build one table: tool, account type, allowed client data, vendor training setting, owner, and next review date. Fill it once, carefully. Every questionnaire after that is a copy-and-paste job, and every answer matches the last one you gave.
Answers written from memory drift. One partner says "we don't use AI with client data", another says "only with names removed". A register ends that.
Write answers you can stand behind
Describe what you do, not what you hope is true. "Staff use the firm's business account of an approved chat assistant; client names, account numbers and tax IDs are removed before use; AI-written client emails are read by the sender before sending" is a better answer than "we follow best practices".
If a practice is not in place yet, say so and give the date it will be. Clients accept "we are moving all AI use to firm accounts by the end of the month" far more easily than a vague yes they later find out was not true.
What this is not
A questionnaire answer is a description of your practices, not a legal opinion. If a question asks whether you meet a specific law or standard, that is a question for your attorney, and it is fine to answer that you have referred it to counsel.
Do it this week
List every AI tool your team used in the last month, including free ones and the AI features inside your office suite. For each, note the account type and what client data it can see. That list is the first half of every answer you will give.
Put this to work today
- List your AI tools, free →
Five questions, about 10 minutes, no account. See where to start and your next three steps.
- AI Use Register Kit ($49) →
List every AI tool your team uses, decide what data can go into each one, and turn those decisions into a short usage policy your staff sign.