How I use AI

I use AI tools to work faster, and I check everything myself before it reaches you. This page says how I use them, what I never put into them, and what you can ask me to do differently.

I am a small business, so most of the Privacy Act 1988 does not legally apply to me. I follow the Australian Privacy Principles anyway.

There is no mandatory AI law in Australia that applies to a business like mine. I follow the Australian Government's Guidance for AI Adoption because it is good practice, not because I have to.

How this works with my privacy page

How I handle your information is the bigger document. It covers everything I collect, why, where it is kept and how long I keep it. This page sits underneath it and adds the rules for AI. If the two ever disagree, the privacy page wins.

Who this applies to

Me, Nikki Monks, and anyone I ever engage to work on Your Sidekick client work.

I work alone. If I bring in a contractor, I will brief them on this before they touch any client work, they may use approved tools only, and I review every piece of their work before it reaches you.

The tools I use

Well-known AI tools from established providers, for writing, research, organising information, and designing images and video. I choose them on how they handle information, and I do not use a tool for client work until I have checked that.

If you want to know exactly which tools touch your work, ask me and I will tell you. I would rather answer that properly than keep a list on a page that goes out of date the moment I change something.

Resumes and job applications

This work means handling more personal detail than my business work does — your employment history, your qualifications and your referees.

Before anything goes into an AI tool, I take the identifying details out. Your name, your contact details, your referees, and the names of the employers you have worked for. I put them back myself afterwards, by hand.

So an AI tool may see ‘eight years in a policy role in a federal agency, leading a team of six’. It does not see who you are or where you worked.

You can ask me not to use AI on your application at all. Tell me before we start and I will write it entirely by hand. It takes longer and it costs the same.

I do not use AI to decide anything about you, to assess your chances, or to predict whether you will get the job.

What I use AI for

• Drafting — emails, documents, web copy, social posts
• Research — finding information, summarising background, fact checking
• Structure — organising documents, templates and reports
• Ideas — working through approaches, angles and options
• Images and video — for my own marketing, and for client work where we have agreed it
• Systems — building the workflows that run my business and my clients' work

AI is a helper, not the final word. I review everything before it reaches you, and I am accountable for it.

What AI does not do in my work

I do not use AI to:

• make decisions on your behalf
• give legal, financial or medical advice
• assess, score or predict anything about a person
• record or transcribe a meeting without your permission
• replace a real conversation, or my own judgment on something that matters
• pass off generated work as entirely my own without saying so

If I record a meeting

I will always seek your permission first. Every time, before anything starts recording — not buried in a booking form or assumed because you said yes once before.

You can say no, and you can change your mind partway through. Say so and the recording stops. Nothing changes about the work or what it costs.

Most of the time I do not record at all. I take notes by hand and type them up afterwards.

My rules for your information

• No client contact details, account numbers or payment information go into AI tools
• Resume and application material is de-identified first, and restored by hand afterwards
• No health information, and nothing else the Privacy Act treats as sensitive, goes into AI tools
• Client files are stored in Google Drive, not inside AI tools
• Notion holds project-level records, not sensitive personal information
• A meeting is only recorded when I have asked you first
• A tool is checked for how it handles information before it goes near client work
• Everything is reviewed by me before it reaches you

What you can ask for

My privacy page gives you the right to see, correct and delete what I hold about you. This page adds four more:

• Ask which AI tools touch your work, and whether AI was used on something I delivered. I will tell you honestly
• Ask me not to use AI on your work. Raise it before we start
• Say no to a meeting being recorded, before it starts or partway through
• For a resume or job application, ask me to write it entirely by hand

To use any of these, email hello@helpsidekick.com or call 0449 898 530. If you are not happy with my answer, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.