If your team uses ChatGPT or Copilot to tidy up emails, a recent decision from the Fair Work Commission is worth two minutes of your time.
In a bullying case involving a Queensland body corporate caretaker, Commissioner Sarah McKinnon found the employee had been bullied and ordered that all future communication between the parties be “accurate and respectful”. She went further and directed that there be “no use of artificial intelligence tools in the preparation of correspondence between the parties”. The order took effect immediately.
This is not a ban on AI at work. It applies to the parties in one dispute. But it does show a tribunal treating AI-written correspondence as part of the problem, and that is a signal worth reading.
The emails in that case were described as lengthy, repetitive, full of generalisations and often couched in accusatory language. Anyone who has watched a small disagreement escalate over email will recognise the pattern. AI makes it quicker and easier to produce a long, confident, combative message than a short and careful one.
Experts speaking to the ABC raised two practical risks for employers:
- Tone and accuracy. Griffith University’s Mai Nguyen said it has become the norm for workers to use AI to sound more professional, but warned that incorrect prompts can exaggerate facts and make the tone inappropriate.
- Confidentiality. The University of Melbourne’s Guzyal Hill said AI use should be discouraged where private and confidential information is being put into the generator.
That second one is the bigger day-to-day risk for most small businesses. Customer details, staff complaints, contracts and quotes pasted into a public AI tool have left your control, and you may not be able to say where they ended up.
You do not need a policy the size of a phone book. A short written rule that names which tools staff may use, what must never be pasted into them, and who reviews anything sensitive before it is sent will cover most of the exposure. And it is worth saying plainly to your team: if it goes out under your name, it is your email, whoever or whatever drafted it.
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