Reflections from our recent leadership forums.

The discussion around AI has become unavoidable, and is changing at a faster pace than perhaps any technology previously introduced. Set against funding considerations, ethical conundrums and a current lack of clear AI regulation in the UK, this creates an interesting dynamic for charities seeking to innovate, mitigate risk and ensure compliance with charity law and governance.

Managing and recruiting personnel

The workplace of 10 years ago looked very different to today, and the workplace in 10 years’ time will look very different again. Charities are already experiencing the difficulties of managing different individual approaches to AI amongst their staff and volunteers (whether enthusiastic adopters or conscientious objectors), and considering how they will need to recruit and train the future workforce. In a sector which relies heavily on interpersonal skills, and which cannot usually match the salaries of commercial entities, charities are grappling with the implications of adding AI knowledge as an additional requirement in the job description.

Transparency

There is a mixed approach from funders, regulators and charities as to their use of AI, and in some cases a disconnect between a charity’s preferred or intended use of AI, and the expectations of its stakeholders.

Transparency is also key internally, both for shared knowledge purposes and for building confidence in AI systems and processes. Identifying when a board paper or report has been initially drafted or partially reviewed by AI, when the senior leadership team can back up the report and answer any questions, can demonstrate to the board the potential for use within the charity and help to allay any fears about its use.

Time-saving?

AI is often touted as the tool which will make us all more productive in the same amount time, or with the same outputs but freeing up additional time for strategic thinking and development or additional leisure activities (depending on your point of view). It can answer questions and produce documents that might usually be answered or produced by specialists, whether engineers, lawyers or HR. What remains to be seen is the impact or fallout from documents which have not been sense-checked by those specialists, and whether it really saves time and cost in the long run.

Wider society impact

AI has already been shown to have the potential to level the playing field for many disadvantaged areas of society (subject to addressing concerns around bias), but the issue of digital access and inclusion on a wider scale still looms large for the charity sector. Some organisations have already demonstrated the positive impact from upskilling staff and beneficiaries, which reaches far outside the organisation itself to improve the economic output and community cohesion of an area.

A human touch

One factor that remains very clear is the need for human input. Beneficiaries and stakeholders want the reassurance that decisions have been made (or at least verified) by a human who can connect with the project or issue on an emotional as well as statistical level. ‘Real-life’ conversations, internally and externally, are still required to alight upon the spark of new ideas, and to critically stress those new ideas with those with lived experience.

Top tips

There are some small and simple steps charities can take in the process of developing their AI use, to ensure them remain compliant with their governance obligations:

• Updating privacy policies to reflect where AI is used in data processing;

• Adding AI use as a standing agenda item for board meetings, to keep it at the forefront of trustees’ minds;

• Adding AI to risk registers, and regularly reviewing the risk factor and mitigations;

• Even at the early stages of AI exploration, putting in place an AI policy which sets out which AI models may (or may not) be used within the charity, what AI may be used for (e.g. producing initial draft copy, but not making decisions), and what safeguards must be adhered to (e.g. no personal data to be inputted into public AI models).

• Carrying out a skills audit to identify whether there are any skills gaps relating to AI and digital.

This article summarises some of the practical discussion points covered in our recent Senior Leadership Forums: "AI-volution: where next for charities and technology??", which were held in Leeds, Sheffield, Kendal and Newcastle.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this article further, please contact the Charities and Social Economy team on 0113 244 6100.

You can also keep up to date by following Wrigleys Solicitors on LinkedIn.

The information in this article is necessarily of a general nature.  The law stated is correct at the date (stated above) this article was first posted to our website.

Specific advice should be sought for specific situations. If you have any queries or need any legal advice, please feel free to contact Wrigleys Solicitors.