As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly write a business continuity plan for a UK small business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a blank document and gather your current staff list, supplier contacts, insurance requirements, emergency procedures, system details, backup arrangements and premises information.
   2. List each activity the business must keep running, the people who perform it, the systems and suppliers it depends on, and the longest interruption you could tolerate.
   3. Paste those notes into the prompt under the matching headings, replacing every bracketed slot and leaving a slot marked [NEEDS CONFIRMING] where you have no reliable answer.
   4. Run the prompt in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and save the resulting plan in the business continuity document.
   5. Compare every name, phone number, supplier, system, backup arrangement and responsibility against your current records, then correct the document and remove unsupported assumptions.
   6. Ask the owner, a manager and the people expected to respond to walk through the first-hour and first-day actions, recording any missing access, authority, equipment or contact details.
   7. Test one realistic scenario, such as loss of premises or a system outage, using the quick-action version, then update the plan where the response cannot be completed as written.

   Prompt

   Write a practical business continuity plan for this UK small business. Use only the information I provide and mark missing information as [NEEDS CONFIRMING] rather than inventing it.
   
   Business: [business name and type]
   Location and sites: [locations, premises, access arrangements]
   People and responsibilities: [owner, managers, key staff, deputies]
   Critical products or services: [what must continue]
   Critical activities and maximum tolerable interruption: [activity, acceptable downtime, important deadlines]
   Key suppliers and outsourced services: [supplier, service, contact route, dependency]
   Essential systems and data: [software, devices, records, backups, access arrangements]
   Utilities and facilities: [power, water, heating, internet, phones, security]
   Customers and communications: [priority customers, communication channels, wording constraints]
   Stock, equipment and alternatives: [essential items, storage, substitute suppliers or methods]
   Known risks: [fire, flood, cyber incident, illness, supplier failure, loss of premises or other risks]
   Existing emergency procedures and insurance requirements: [paste relevant details]
   
   Produce:
   1. A short purpose and scope section.
   2. A business impact summary showing critical activity, maximum tolerable interruption, dependencies and consequences.
   3. A risk and disruption table covering the risks supported by my information.
   4. Immediate response actions for the first hour, first day and recovery period.
   5. Named roles and deputies using only the people supplied.
   6. Communication actions for staff, customers, suppliers and emergency contacts.
   7. Workarounds for premises, people, systems, suppliers, utilities and data.
   8. A recovery checklist with clear owners and completion criteria.
   9. A contact and asset register containing blanks where details are missing.
   10. A testing and review schedule without inventing dates.
   
   Keep it proportionate for a small business, use plain UK English, distinguish confirmed facts from assumptions, and flag every action that needs confirmation from an insurer, landlord, supplier, IT provider, regulator or other specialist. Finish with a list of the ten most important unanswered questions and a one-page quick-action version for staff.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.