Saying what AI made

What you will learn The first item under taking responsibility, the last of the four moves. What has to be disclosed and what does not, how to actually write the sentence, and why a disclaimer is not a disclosure.

Why you need a rule

In an organisation without a disclosure rule, two things happen at once.

text

One side: says nothing at all      → when it comes out later, it reads as concealmentThe other: "This document was produced with the assistance of AI" on           everything      → a sentence carrying no information, stuck on everywhere

Both are ways of avoiding the judgement. Disclosure is not all-or-nothing; it is a question of how far.

Three questions

Disclose if any one of these is yes.

graph TD
  Q1["Would the recipient judge<br/>differently knowing this?"] --> Y["Disclose"]
  Q2["Does a contract, regulation, or<br/>norm require it?"] --> Y
  Q3["Would it be a problem<br/>if it came out later?"] --> Y
  Q1 --> N["No disclosure needed"]
  Q2 --> N
  Q3 --> N

1. Would the recipient judge differently?

The core question. If the judgement does not change, the reason to disclose is weak.

text

Spellcheck done with AI            → judgement unchanged. No disclosureMeeting minutes summarised by AI   → usually unchangedMarket figures gathered by AI      → it changes. DiscloseAI involved in evaluating people   → changes a lot. Always

2. Is it required?

This one is a lookup, not a judgement. Public tenders, finance, healthcare, and academia often have explicit requirements → Regulation and compliance

3. Would it be a problem if it came out later?

"Do I feel awkward disclosing this?" is a good signal. If you do, the answer to the first question is usually already yes.

Split it into tiers

Tier	What	How
No disclosure	Spelling, draft translation, formatting	Nothing
Internal record only	Drafting, collating, classifying	In the log, not in the document
Note in the document	Research and analysis, outbound material	State it in a sentence
Individual notice	A judgement about a person is involved	Directly, with a route to object

The second row is the most common one and the most often skipped. Even when it does not go in the document, it has to live somewhere. That somewhere is the audit log; the design is in Audit trail and observability.

How to write the sentence

The difference between a useless sentence and a useful one is whether three things are in it.

text

✗ "This document was produced with the assistance of AI."   → nothing about what was done, who checked it, or what not to trust

text

✓ "The market data in section 3 was gathered and collated with an AI   tool, then checked against the original sources by the author.   The outlook in section 4 is the author's own and used no AI."

The three things

Include	Why
Where it was used	Scopes it, instead of the whole document
What job it did	Gathering, drafting, or judging
What the person did	This is what fixes responsibility

The third matters most. A sentence that ends at "AI did it" leaves responsibility floating in the air. What the recipient wants to know is not the tool but who stands behind this result.

The short form

Where the document only allows one line, compress it:

text

"Collection: AI tool / Verification: J. Kim / Judgement: J. Kim"

A disclaimer is not a disclosure

The most common mistake.

text

✗ "AI-generated content; accuracy is not guaranteed. Responsibility   for use lies with the user."

That is not disclosure, it is a sentence handing responsibility to the other party. And it usually does not work either — responsibility for what we produced and sent does not vanish because of it.

Disclosure says what we did. A disclaimer says it is not our fault.

If the recipient genuinely has to share the verification burden, the right move is not a disclaimer but telling them what to verify.

text

✓ "Prices are as of the collection date (4 March) and may change.   Please confirm on the source site before ordering."

Planting it in the organisation

Left to personal conscientiousness, it will not hold. You have to make a place for it in the document template and the workflow.

text

✗ Announce "please disclose when you use AI"  → gone within weeks✓ Put an "AI use" field in the report template → an empty field is visible✓ Add it to the approval checklist             → it catches at sign-off✓ Have the tool record it automatically        → it happens without people

The fourth is the sturdiest, and running three and four together is what real operations look like. For the part that asks people to form new habits → Change management

Check

1. What is the first question that decides whether to disclose?

Answer

"Would the recipient judge differently knowing this?" Work that does not change the judgement (spellcheck, formatting) has a weak reason to be disclosed; work that does (gathered figures, judgements about people) must be.

2. Why is "produced with the assistance of AI" not enough?

Answer

Because it contains none of where, what job, and what the person did. Missing the last one especially leaves responsibility unassigned. The recipient wants to know who stands behind the result, not which tool was used.

3. What is the difference between a disclaimer and a disclosure?

Answer

A disclosure says what we did; a disclaimer says it is not our fault. A disclaimer hands responsibility to the other party, so it is not disclosure, and it usually has no effect either. If they must share the verification burden, tell them what to verify.

Now design the POC for real → Phase 3 — design and run a POC