This guide shows how to write an AI charter based on your teams’ use, give it a legal status and keep it alive. It does not cover supporting teams over time: the change management guide covers that subject. It reflects the law in force on 26 October 2026 and does not replace the advice of a lawyer.

Key takeaways

• A charter copied from a generic template ignores the uses that already exist in your teams.

• If the charter imposes general and permanent rules on discipline, it follows the procedure for internal regulations: works council (CSE) opinion, publication, labour inspectorate.

• Without a body to decide unforeseen cases, the charter quickly stops describing actual practice.

Why start from actual use rather than from a charter template?

Your employees already use AI tools, often without having declared it: this is shadow AI (in French). A charter that ignores these uses settles no real case. According to the Work Trend Index from Microsoft and LinkedIn (May 2024, 31,000 people, 31 countries), 78% of AI users bring their own tools. The study comes from Microsoft, which sells an enterprise assistant.

So start with an inventory. A short, anonymous survey asks each team for its tools, its tasks and its data. The AI assessment guide describes this observation of actual work. The inventory gives you the material for the charter: specific cases, which you classify as authorised, authorised with conditions or prohibited uses.

What should a company AI charter contain?

An AI charter states which tools your teams may use, with which data, under what control and with what information given to third parties. The CNIL (French data protection authority) recommends defining a list of authorised and prohibited uses (18 July 2024). As examples, it cites prohibiting the supply of personal data (in French) to the system and prohibiting entrusting decisions to it.

Cover at least seven topics:

• Authorised tools: the list of tools under a company contract, and the rule for all the others.

• Data: three levels are enough, for example unrestricted, reserved for company tools, prohibited. ANSSI recommends banning online generative AI tools for any professional use involving sensitive data (recommendation R34, April 2024).

• Human oversight: who reviews what before use, and who is accountable for the result. The human in the loop (in French) page explains what this oversight covers.

• Transparency: when to inform a client or a partner. Article 50 of the AI Act requires the deployer to disclose a deep fake. It also covers text published to inform the public on matters of public interest. This obligation does not apply after human review or editorial control, if a natural or legal person holds editorial responsibility for the publication.

• Generated content: who may reuse it, and how to verify it.

• Security: assistants’ access to email or shared folders. ANSSI recommends a regular review of these rights (R35). A booby-trapped document can also hijack an assistant: OWASP describes this indirect prompt injection (in French).

• Training: what each employee must know before using a tool.

What status should the AI charter have under French labour law?

A charter that imposes general and permanent rules on discipline, health or safety at work becomes an addition to the internal regulations (règlement intérieur). Without internal regulations, it follows the same regime (Article L1321-5 of the French Labour Code). Every company or establishment with at least 50 employees must have internal regulations, twelve months after crossing the threshold (Article L1311-2). These regulations set, in particular, the rules of discipline and the scale of sanctions (Article L1321-1).

A charter of this type therefore follows the same procedure:

1. you obtain the works council (CSE) opinion before introducing it (Article L1321-4);

2. you bring it to employees’ attention by any means (Article R1321-1);

3. at the same time, you send it to the labour inspector with the CSE opinion;

4. it comes into force at least one month after these publication formalities.

Since 28 May 2026, the law on simplifying economic life has removed the filing with the registry of the employment tribunal (conseil de prud’hommes) (Article L1321-4). Article R1321-2 still mentions it, pending a decree.

The labour inspector may at any time require the withdrawal or amendment of an irregular clause (Article L1322-1). Some prohibitions restrict a right or a freedom of employees. Each must then remain justified by the nature of the task and proportionate to the aim pursued (Articles L1121-1 and L1321-3). A note that merely informs and recommends falls outside this regime. Have your legal counsel validate the chosen status before the consultation.