👋 Welcome back to AI for SME Success, your weekly dose of quick, actionable AI insights for small businesses.
Here’s what we’re covering today:
- How to Protect Your SME from Vendors’ AI Misuse.
- Cybersecurity Risks of the AI Caricature Trend.
- How a Solopreneur Runs Business with 15 AI Agents.
- New Features in Microsoft Copilot & Google Workspace.
- Live Training with Me. Reserve Your Spot!
🤔 How to Protect Your SME from Vendor AI Misuse
Almost every organization is now experimenting with AI, and too many are allowing critical mistakes to slip past their guardrails.
Here are some very recent examples:
- Earlier this month a Quebec realtor and his agency had to apologize after using AI-generated images to market a home.
- A CFOtech article titled “Canadian Firms Lose Money After Using AI for Tax Advice,” reports that Canadian businesses incurred financial losses and compliance issues after relying on AI tools for tax, bookkeeping, and financial guidance.
- AI failures can reach dangerous extremes. An article titled “RFK Jr’s Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert into Your Rectum,” published on February 10 on 404 Media, reported that a US government-linked AI nutrition chatbot was providing dangerous health recommendations.
A company that misuses AI could be one of your vendors!
According to ARTEMIA’s article “Managing Supplier AI Risk: How to Protect Your Business from Third-Party Misuse,” published on February 2, more than 80% of large firms with over 5,000 employees have AI policies in place, but only 35% of companies with fewer than 500 employees have any formal guardrails. At the same time, smaller vendors tend to rely more heavily on AI tools for efficiency.
When vendors use AI inappropriately, your business can face intellectual property infringement, data leaks, off-brand or inappropriate content, factual errors, and reputational damage. Your organization can still be held liable if a supplier’s actions trigger regulatory breaches, contractual violations, or public backlash, even if your internal controls are strong.
To reduce this risk, ensure every contract includes:
- Full disclosure of AI use by your vendor
- Restrictions on AI tools and use cases
- Restrictions on data that can be used in AI
- Mandatory human oversight of AI deliverables
- Vendor liability for AI-related errors
In addition, educate vendors through onboarding materials, short training videos, and FAQs that clarify your AI standards.
Use this clear and concise Supplier AI Policy developed by Cox Enterprises as your reference guide.
🕵️ Cybersecurity Risks of the AI Caricature Trend
An article titled “ChatGPT’s AI caricature social media trend could be a gift to fraudsters, experts warn,” published by Euronews on February 14, explains how a seemingly playful AI trend may expose users to serious fraud risks.
In this recent AI trend, people are sharing selfies, adding workplace logos or descriptions of their jobs, and prompting OpenAI’s ChatGPT to create personalized caricatures based on what the chatbot knows about them.
Cybersecurity experts warn that information and photos shared with AI tools should never reveal personal or professional identifiers, as they could end up in the hands of malicious actors who may exploit them.
To reduce exposure, security professionals advise minimizing identifiable details in shared images.
If you choose to participate in the trend, “crop tightly, keep the background plain, and do not include badges, uniforms, work lanyards, location clues, or anything that ties you to an employer or a routine.“
🧑💼 How a Solopreneur Runs Business with 15 AI Agents
An article titled “I’m a solo founder with AI agents instead of employees. My ‘council’ of AI agents saves me 20 hours a week,” published by Business Insider on February 13, shares how Aaron Sneed, a 40-year-old Florida defense-tech founder, runs his business using AI agents instead of traditional staff.
His firm, Defense Operations & Engineering Solutions Inc. (DOES), delivers engineering, digital systems, and execution-discipline services to highly regulated industries. Instead of employees, Sneed relies on AI agents for HR, finance, accounting, legal, communications, PR, security and compliance, engineering, quality, supply chain, training, manufacturing, business systems, facilities, field operations, and IT and data. All of these AI agents are coordinated by a chief-of-staff agent.
He estimates the system saves him about 20 hours per week, while emphasizing that AI does not replace nuanced human judgment. Sneed has worked on autonomous decision-making platforms for over a decade, giving him a strong foundation in agentic systems.
His advice to other solopreneurs: don’t rush. “It takes time to get the agents to a good place… Companies that jump into AI too quickly without understanding how to use it properly could hurt themselves in the long run,” Sneed points out.
Key Takeaways:
- Adopting AI agents requires time, testing, and learning, but the upside across multiple business functions can be significant.
- Take one step at a time. Invest in training, testing, and validating one workflow at a time before scaling to the next.
🛠️ New Features in Microsoft Copilot & Google Workspace.
Google Workspace
- AI Audio Summaries in Google Docs: You can now “Listen to Your Documents,” with Gemini providing a spoken overview of your files.
- Take Notes for Me: In Google Meet, this new AI feature summarizes conversations, suggests next steps, and attaches notes to the event.
Microsoft Copilot
- Copilot Reminders. New Microsoft’s Copilot reminders are created through conversational AI in natural language but they currently have usage limits.
- Scheduling with Copilot in Outlook: By selecting “Schedule with Copilot,” the AI finds availability, drafts an agenda, and prepares the invitation for you.
🖥️Live Training with Me. Reserve Your Spot!
Join me for two hands-on sessions designed specifically for small business owners:
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Profitable AI Workflows
📅 Feb 26 | 12–1 PM EST
How To Make Impactful On-Brand Visuals with AI
📅 Feb 26 | 2–3 PM EST
Thank you for reading today’s edition!
If this issue was valuable, pass it along to a fellow business owner.
Also, I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, or topic suggestions at natalia@nataliabrattan.com.
See you next week,
Natalia