Pasting a client file into an AI tool feels like the fast version of a task you were already doing. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is also the moment a name, an address or a health detail leaves your control with no record of where it went.
Stop
Before pasting, ask whether the tool is approved for this kind of data. Not "is it good" — approved, meaning someone has already checked its data handling and terms.
Check
Does the file actually need to be whole? Most tasks need a paragraph, a table or a summary — not the entire record with every field attached.
Strip
Remove names, contact details and anything identifying before it goes in, and replace them with placeholders if the structure still matters. What comes back can be matched to the real record afterwards.
None of this is about avoiding AI. It is about making sure the convenient version and the responsible version are the same version.