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Your Employees Are Already Using AI. Here Are the 6 Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Asking Now.
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Published 10/13/2026 12:00:00 PM
Your Employees Are Already Using AI. Here Are the 6 Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Asking Now.
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Key Takeaways
- AI adoption is already happening inside our businesses. Now we have to learn how to manage it.
- Every manager needs answers to 6 questions: Who’s using AI? What are they using it for? How are they using it? What company, customer or employee data are they putting into it? Who checks the output? Who owns the result?
- Divide AI use into three categories: Green, Amber and Red. Green means use freely. Amber means use AI, but a human remains in the loop. Red means don’t delegate it to AI.
Your employees are probably already using AI. They may be drafting emails with ChatGPT, analyzing spreadsheets with Copilot, researching competitors with Claude or experimenting with tools you have never even heard of. Some of that usage may be officially sanctioned. Some almost certainly isn’t. For business owners, that changes the question.
We spent the first few years of generative AI asking whether employees should be allowed to use it. Increasingly, that’s the wrong question. Employees are using it, and the much more important issue is whether anybody is actually managing how.
KPMG’s 2025 American Worker Survey found that 87% of U.S. workers were using AI at least weekly and 51% daily. Meanwhile, a separate global study from KPMG and the University of Melbourne, covering more than 48,000 people across 47 countries, found that 44% of employees had used AI in ways that contravened organizational policies. It also found that 66% had relied on AI output without evaluating its accuracy.
AI adoption is already happening inside our businesses. Now we have to learn how to manage it.
Think about how AI entered most businesses. An employee discovered ChatGPT, tried it on a few tasks and realized it could save time. Maybe they used it to summarize a document, improve an email or brainstorm ideas. That’s relatively easy to manage.
But imagine that same employee six months from now. AI researches potential customers, qualifies prospects, drafts personalized outreach and updates the CRM. The employee may still be responsible for the outcome, but they are no longer doing all of the work themselves.
This progression is what I call the AI Management Ladder.
At Level 1, there is no AI and the employee does the work. At Level 2, AI assists them, while Level 3 sees AI handling defined parts of a workflow. By Level 4, an AI agent can execute multiple steps toward an objective. And at Level 5, you have a human-and-agent team, where employees increasingly manage outcomes while AI executes more of the work.
Moving up that ladder can create enormous productivity gains. But every step also increases the importance of management, because you are giving technology greater responsibility for work that ultimately affects your customers, employees and business.
Every manager needs answers to 6 questions
You don’t need to understand every AI model your employees use or create a complicated governance structure to get started. But every manager should be able to answer six questions.
- Who is using AI?
- What are they using it for?
- How are they using it?
- What company, customer or employee data are they putting into it?
- Who checks the output?
- Who owns the result?
That last question matters more as AI becomes capable of doing more.
I saw this recently while working with the owner of a growing service business. We were reviewing employee roles and realized that the traditional job descriptions no longer told us enough. They explained what each employee was responsible for, but not what parts of the job AI could perform, where AI required human supervision or where it shouldn’t be used at all.
So we started looking at the roles differently. Which responsibilities were Green, where employees could use AI freely? Which were Amber, where AI could help but a human still needed to review the work? And which were Red, where the task or information involved meant AI should not be used without approval?
That changes a job description from simply defining what an employee does to defining what the employee is accountable for — even when AI does part of the work.
Suppose an employee uses AI to help prepare a customer proposal. The AI includes an outdated price or invents a product capability, the employee doesn’t catch it, and the proposal goes to the customer.
Who owns the mistake? The answer cannot be ChatGPT.
AI may increasingly perform the work, but accountability still has to sit somewhere inside your organization. As business owners, we need to make that ownership explicit before something goes wrong, not afterward.
Give employees an operating agreement
One response to this problem is to write a long list of restrictions. But if the rules make AI difficult to use, employees may simply continue using it without telling you.
A better starting point is what I call an AI Operating Agreement. Divide AI use into three categories: Green, Amber and Red.
Green means use freely: This could include brainstorming, formatting, summarizing non-sensitive information, first drafts and ideation. These are low-risk activities where employees should be encouraged to experiment with approved AI tools.
Amber means use AI, but a human remains in the loop: Client-facing materials, financial analysis, important research, hiring-related work, recommendations or anything where an error could materially affect the business might sit here. AI can help produce the work, but an accountable person checks it before anything happens.
Red means don’t delegate it to AI: This might include sharing prohibited confidential information, uploading sensitive customer or employee data into unauthorized systems or allowing AI to make consequential decisions it has not been authorized to make.
The exact boundaries will be different for every company. A five-person marketing agency should not have the same rules as a financial services company with 5,000 employees.
What matters is that everyone understands where those boundaries are.
A policy isn’t the same as management
This is where business owners can easily develop a false sense of security.
Write an AI policy, email it to everyone, ask employees to acknowledge it, and the problem appears solved. Except it isn’t.
The KPMG and University of Melbourne research found widespread use of AI that contravened organizational policies. Having rules about AI and managing how people actually use AI are not the same thing.
Managers need to start making AI part of normal conversations about work. How did you produce this? Where did AI help? What did you check? What information did you give it? Could we improve this workflow? Could AI safely take on more of it?
Those shouldn’t be “gotcha” questions. They should become as ordinary as asking who is responsible for a project or whether a customer has approved a proposal.
The goal isn’t less AI
There is an understandable temptation for business owners to respond to AI risk by restricting it. But banning tools doesn’t necessarily stop people using them. It may simply make their usage harder to see.
The better objective is to create an organization where employees are comfortable saying when they use AI, understand the boundaries around that use and remain accountable for the results.
We’ve spent a lot of time teaching employees how to use AI. The next challenge is teaching managers how to manage people who use it. As AI moves from answering questions to completing workflows and executing tasks, that will become a fundamental management skill. Most businesses haven’t developed it yet.
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Effective product pages help online shoppers decide whether an item fits their needs and what buying it involves. A beautiful photograph gets attention. Product details such as dimensions, available sizes, delivery details, and a clear price help turn that attention into a purchase.
Even established retailers miss these basics. In its benchmark of leading U.S. and European retailers, updated in March 2026, Baymard Institute rated 52% of desktop sites and 62% of mobile sites “mediocre or worse” for product-page usability1.
Product-page changes can affect revenue, too. In a 27-day test for Life Pro Fitness, agency Media Contour made product images, key details, and buying buttons visible without needing to scroll. Testing vendor Wingify reported that the revised page generated $0.67 more revenue per visitor than the original2.
If you are building a new store, follow the five tips below as you create your product pages. Have those pages ready before running ads that send shoppers to them.
If you already have an online store, choose one product page to improve. Reference these steps to check whether it answers shoppers’ questions and lets them add the right item to their cart.
1. Answer shoppers’ questions in the product description
Identify the main question a shopper needs answered before buying. Look for questions customers ask repeatedly or misunderstandings behind returns. For a new product, start with fit, compatibility, or what is included. Confirm the answer against your product specifications, then put it near the start of the description.
For example, consider a pet-supply retailer selling a dog harness. Someone choosing their first harness needs measurements and adjustment details to judge the fit. Someone replacing a harness they already own needs to recognize the same model and size. The page should make both tasks straightforward.
Also, use consistent labels and units across similar products to make comparisons easier. Include limitations, such as incompatible models or items sold separately, so shoppers can rule out an unsuitable purchase.
In e-commerce platform BigCommerce, for instance, online sellers can use the product description and custom fields—additional facts such as material or compatibility—to present these details. Preview the product page to check that shoppers can find the information they need.
Then, use those same facts to help shoppers recognize the item in search results. In BigCommerce’s page title field, use the product name and a relevant detail, such as its model or material. Avoid repeating keywords or giving every product the same title.
2. Give every product image a question to answer
Plan your gallery around what someone needs to inspect. Show the whole product, a useful detail, and the product in use. For example, a lighting retailer could photograph a lamp beside a chair to show its scale and how it lights a reading space. A close-up of the switch shows how someone would operate it. Together, these images help shoppers picture using the lamp at home. Keep written dimensions available as well.
The same Baymard overview describes how shoppers use images to judge size and can struggle when photographs lack a familiar reference.
If you sell a bundle, make clear which pictured items are included. For products that need assembly or demonstration, you might even consider creating a short video. Add alt text: a short description of the useful information in an image. Screen-reader software can read that description aloud or present it in braille. Keep essential instructions available as text as well.
BigCommerce supports product images, images for variants such as different colors, and YouTube-hosted product videos. Check that your gallery presents the right item as shoppers change their selection.
3. Make choices, prices, and recurring charges clear
Keep size, color, quantity, and purchase options close to the buying button. Label them plainly, show the current selection, and make unavailable choices recognizable. If the size options fit on the screen, show them as labeled buttons, such as S, M, and L. This lets shoppers see which sizes are available without opening a menu, as the Baymard overview explains.
Place helpful links beside the choice it explains. For the dog harness, for example, consider putting a measurement guide beside the size selector so shoppers can check the fit before choosing. Keep it visible or provide a clearly labeled link that works by touch and keyboard.
In BigCommerce, online sellers can configure choices such as size and color through product variants and options. Then check that the displayed price and availability match the shopper’s selection. For multipacks, show both the pack total and the unit price. Make the full pack price easy to find so shoppers know what they will be charged.
If you offer subscriptions, let shoppers explicitly choose between a one-time purchase and a recurring order. Put the recurring charge, delivery frequency, and change or cancellation terms beside that choice so shoppers can compare the commitments before selecting. Confirm that these terms match how your subscription service works. Select a subscription yourself and verify that checkout shows the plan, price, and frequency you chose.
4. Make sure delivery, returns, and reviews are easy to find
A shopper who needs an item by a particular date wants to know whether it will arrive in time. Show a delivery estimate for their destination. Put a short explanation of shipping and returns near add to cart, with links to the full policies.
Show shipping fees or explain how they will be calculated. Clearly describe return windows, fees, and exclusions that matter for the item. If pickup is offered, distinguish stock at the selected location from stock elsewhere. Avoid presenting an estimate as a confirmed promise.
Also consider making reassurances that are specific to the purchase. Using the dog harness as an example again, you’d want to explain whether a shopper can exchange it if the fit is wrong and which conditions apply. That answers the practical concerns that a badge saying “Shop with Confidence” leaves unresolved. Use only promises your business can honor.
Customer reviews provide another way to assess the product. Show the review rating, text, reviewer’s display name, and date on the relevant product page. If reviews come from another service, name that service. These details help shoppers understand whose experience they are reading and how recent it is.
5. Test the path from product page to cart
Shoppers need to know that the page has registered their choices and whether adding an item succeeded. Open your chosen product page on your phone. If a required option starts unselected, try adding the item before choosing it. The page should tell you what to select or explain why “Add to cart” is unavailable.
If the product has options, choose them, then change one selection. Check that the price, availability, and any option-specific images match. Add the item. While the request is processing, the page should make that clear. Once it succeeds, a confirmation or the cart itself should show what was added. If an error occurs, it should explain how to continue without losing other selections.
From there, make sure to check the item’s quantity, options, and price in the cart. If you chose a size or color, return to the product page and check whether it still shows that selection. These checks help catch a wrong selection or an uncertain result before a shopper encounters it.
Shoppers who cannot use a mouse need to select options and add products using a keyboard. To check that they can, repeat the steps above on a computer without the mouse. Use Tab to move forward between controls and Shift+Tab to move back. A visible outline or other marker should show which control you are about to use. Press Enter to activate links and Enter or Space for buttons. In a drop-down list, such as a size selector, use the arrow keys to move through the options.
Shoppers who need larger text must still be able to read product details and reach Add to cart. Use the browser’s Zoom control to enlarge the page to 200% and try the same steps again. Check for overlapping text or controls that disappear. Across all these checks, record anything that prevents choosing the product, adding it, or correcting a mistake.
Keep improving one page at a time
Clear facts and images help shoppers judge the product; clear choices, terms, and working controls help them act on that decision. Choose one issue from your review to fix first. Give priority to a problem that prevents adding the correct item to the cart. If shoppers can add the correct item, address an unanswered question that could lead someone to buy the wrong product.
Record what you changed and when. If you have sales reports, compare purchases and revenue for the product over equal periods before and after the change. Note any promotions or changes in visitor numbers that could also explain the results. Customer questions, order corrections, and return reasons can help you check whether the same misunderstanding persists.
For more examples, explore BigCommerce’s product-page guide, then apply the same review to the next product page.
1 Product Page UX 2026: 10 Pitfalls and Best Practices (Baymard Institute)
2 Media Contour uses split URL testing to improve the revenue from product pages (Wingify)
