AI can help. A person is responsible.
The Human First Seal tells customers that a named person checked the work before it reached them, that the business says where AI helped, and that a human answers when something goes wrong.
Seven commitments, written so a customer can check them
Each commitment comes with a test: something a customer, or our reviewers, can actually look for.
- HF-1
A person always signs off
Everything that reaches a customer is approved by a real person who can explain it and stands behind it. AI may draft. It never has the final say.
Test: ask who approved it. You get a name, not "the system."
- HF-2
We tell you where AI helped
The business publishes a plain-language "How we use AI" page and says so wherever AI shaped what you are reading, buying, or being decided about.
Test: the page exists, it is linked from the seal, and it names the tasks AI does.
- HF-3
Facts come from sources, not from the AI
Numbers, quotes, prices, and claims trace back to a real source that a person checked. AI can summarize facts. It is never the source of them.
Test: ask where a number came from. You get a source.
- HF-4
Your private information has limits
The business names the AI tools it uses, keeps passwords, payment details, and sensitive records out of them, and only uses tools that do not train on customer data.
Test: the tool list is on the "How we use AI" page.
- HF-5
You can always reach a person
Questions, complaints, and decisions you disagree with go to a human who can change the outcome. No chatbot dead ends.
Test: a working way to reach a person is listed, and they reply.
- HF-6
Decisions about people get extra care
When AI touches hiring, lending, housing, admissions, health, or pricing for individuals, a person makes the decision and the business checks the results for unfair patterns.
Test: the business can show who decides and how often they review outcomes.
- HF-7
Mistakes get fixed in the open
When AI-assisted work goes wrong, the business corrects it quickly and says what changed. Staff who report a problem are never punished for it.
Test: a corrections note exists, and complaints filed with us get a response.
Free to start. Verified when you're ready.
A one-person shop and a 10,000-person company meet the same seven commitments. What changes is how much we check.
Pledged
Anyone, any size Free- Sign the seven commitments
- Publish your "How we use AI" page
- Listed in the public registry
- Use the Pledged seal, linked to your listing
Verified
Small and mid-size businesses Annual fee by size- Everything in Pledged
- A reviewer checks your AI page and sign-off process
- We spot-check 3 pieces of real customer-facing work
- Complaints handled through us
- Solid Verified seal, renewed yearly
Organization
Large companies and teams Quoted- Everything in Verified
- Review of your internal AI policy and team working agreements
- Sampling across departments
- Training for managers who sign off
A seal you can't fake
Every seal links to the business's live listing. A seal without a listing, or with a revoked one, is not valid.
Pledge
The business signs the seven commitments and publishes its "How we use AI" page.
Listing
We give it a registry number, such as HF-2026-0001, and a public listing page.
Seal
The seal goes on its site, linked to that listing. Click any seal to check it.
Accountability
Customers can file a complaint. Responses and revocations are public.
Who holds the seal
| Registry no. | Business | Level | Since | Complaints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HF-2026-0001 | Admitted California (founder's business) | Pledged | Oct 2026 | 0 open |
The founder's own businesses are marked as such. They can hold only the Pledged level until an outside reviewer verifies them.
The "How we use AI" page
This is the heart of the seal. It is short, plain, and specific. Here is the first one, written for the founder's own business.
How Admitted California uses AI
- AI helps with
- Drafting report text, emails, and web pages; building data tables.
- AI never does
- Supply the admissions numbers. Those come from UC and Cal State data.
- Who signs off
- Jim Stewart approves every report, email, and page before it goes out.
- Tools
- Claude (Anthropic).
- Reach a person
- Reply to any email, and Jim answers.
- Corrections
- Report an error and we fix it, with a note saying what changed.
Did a sealed business break a commitment?
Tell us which business, which commitment, and what happened. We send it to the business, which has 10 business days to respond. The outcome goes on its public listing. Businesses that ignore complaints, or break a commitment and don't fix it, lose the seal.
Built by a software architect who uses AI every day
Jim Stewart is a software architect in Riverside, California. He has helped write AI working agreements for enterprise product teams built on human-first principles, and he runs a business built with AI where every word still goes past him before it ships. The Human First Seal, hF for short, turns those principles into seven commitments any customer can understand.
The standard is free to read and free to adopt. Fees cover reviews, not the right to call yourself Human First.