Before your staff adopt a new AI tool, a few plain questions can prevent most of the problems I see. Use these as a checklist in your next leadership meeting.
Five questions to ask
- What problem are we solving? Name the task and who it helps. If you cannot, wait.
- What information will go into it? Decide in advance that names, case details and other sensitive information never go into public tools.
- What do the vendor’s terms say about our data? Check whether inputs are stored, shared or used to train the product.
- Who reviews the output? A person should check anything AI-generated before it is shared or used in a decision.
- Who owns the decision? Name one person responsible for approving the tool and revisiting that approval each year.
A simple next step
Write your answers down. Even a one-page summary gives your board, funders and staff a shared starting point, and it is the seed of an acceptable-use policy. My AI readiness checklist walks through ten questions to get you there.
This post is educational and is not legal or professional advice. Consult qualified counsel about your organization’s specific obligations.
