Commercial AI tools are already on most desks. The risk isn't the tool. It's what gets typed into it. Every input is a disclosure decision, and it's made before you open the session, not after.
Before you open a tool
Use only the tools your organization has approved, under its written AI policy. If there's no policy or approved list, ask before you type anything that isn't public.
Sort every input into one of three tiers
| Tier | What to do | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| SAFE | May go into an approved tool. | Information that is already lawfully public: a posted solicitation, your published procurement code and policies, vendors’ public websites and capability statements. Inputting it discloses nothing new. |
| CAUTION | Remove the identifying or sensitive specifics, then use only an approved tool. | Internal drafts and notes that contain names, prices not yet public, or parties’ positions. |
| NEVER | Stays out of every AI tool unless your agency has authorized that tool, in writing, for that kind of information. | Information your procurement code, public records law, or other law makes confidential or exempt from disclosure. That can include bids and proposals during evaluation, vendor trade secrets and proprietary material, and personal information (PII). Anything your agency has marked confidential. |
Which information is confidential, and for how long, is set by your state’s procurement code and public records law, and sometimes by local rules. When you’re not sure, treat it as NEVER and ask your counsel or records officer.
Your prompts may be public records
Public records laws generally reach records made or received in the course of public business, whatever their format. What you type into an AI tool, and what it gives back, may be one of them. Many tools keep a history of every session. Before you use a tool for agency work, find out whether your agency treats that history as a record, how long it has to be kept, and who answers a request for it. Then write every prompt as if it could be released.
How to anonymize a CAUTION input
One prohibited practice, whatever the tier
A vendor document can carry instructions hidden in white text, alt text, or metadata that change what an AI tool tells you about it. You can’t see them, and the tool may follow them. And you can’t audit that after the fact. So a vendor-submitted document never goes into any AI tool, including an enterprise tool your agency has approved, for any purpose, even anonymized. The workaround is to use AI earlier: build your evaluation criteria and their rationale before proposals arrive, then evaluate the proposals yourself.
Write it down
For any AI-assisted work that touches a purchase, record which tool you used, what went in, and what you kept or changed. Keep that record with the procurement file. The file has to stand on its own if someone reviews it later, or asks for it.
This primer is a working guide, not legal advice. Your organization’s AI policy, your procurement code, your public records law, and your counsel govern.
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