One Thing to Think About - Responsible AI

Focusing on Priorities, Purpose, & Processes

What comes to mind when you think about how and why you use AI? Do you use it to augment or to automate? Do you use it to increase profit, impact, or reach? Do you have processes in place to mitigate risk, ensure transparency, and respect privacy?

You may already know your answers to these questions, but do you know what your AI adoption reveals about your values and priorities?

As you consider or move forward with AI, it is important to ask intentional questions about the priorities informing your use of AI, alongside your purpose and processes. Priorities deserve particular attention, because this is where AI has the greatest potential to shape organizational culture. A responsible approach to AI must ask, “How is AI forming my organization, and where will this lead?” Ultimately, this is a question about values.

BLUF: AI will transform organizations, not just automate tasks and create efficiencies. Leaders who spend time examining the priorities, purpose, and processes that shape AI use will be better prepared to resist easy shortcuts and develop solutions that create lasting benefit and impact for their organization. Giving particular attention to priorities and values throughout will help protect against drift from mission and principles.

The purpose for using AI could be about efficiency. That is one of its biggest selling points. AI can free up bandwidth and decrease time spent on tasks that, while important, can detract from strategy or mission, particularly in smaller organizations. But efficiency is an outcome. Purpose asks where AI can create practical organizational impact while remaining in line with priorities.

A deeper examination matters. Is AI the right tool for the job? If it is, is using AI in this context the best approach? A sole focus on short-term efficiency can come at the expense of long-term sustainability. It can also contribute to mission and values drift. Efficiency is an important piece of the AI puzzle, but it isn’t the full picture. Purposeful AI use requires more.

Responsible AI often focuses on how companies develop AI tools. It also includes how individuals or organizations govern AI’s use and mitigate potential risk. This is about process. Here, key questions must be answered around how your AI use addresses issues of bias, transparency, and accountability. These processes also help ensure technologies are developed, procured, and deployed with adequate guardrails and used responsibly.

But to answer the deeper questions about AI’s impact, you need to be clear not only about where you are using AI and how you are ensuring it is used well, but about the organizational priorities informing that use.

Priorities are where values meet practice. They move the conversation from tactical and operational Responsible AI toward strategic alignment with mission, character, and values that define an organization. The “why” matters because it reveals what an organization is trying to preserve or become.

The conversation around Responsible AI is not just about capacity or compliance, but culture. The best way to ensure AI is used responsibly in your organization is to intentionally and thoughtfully consider purpose, priorities, and processes as AI is applied in practice. You should then continually reevaluate how that use matches your values.

Values should shape both the beginning and the end of your AI adoption journey. Your AI use should reflect those values. If your organization values curiosity, AI use should mirror that. Certainly, if your organization prioritizes human dignity, your AI use should not diminish it. Values and use need to match.

This lens on alignment helps prevent AI from being adopted in ways that conflict with your organizational culture and mission. It also creates a stronger foundation for sustainable outcomes because adoption is strategic, rather than tactical or impulsive.

To help evaluate your own AI use, here is a set of practical questions, organized around the core lenses of Priorities, Purpose, and Processes.

Three Responsible AI Ideas To Consider

PURPOSE
Gartner Predicts Half of Companies That Cut Customer Service Staff Due to AI Will Rehire by 2027

“By 2027, 50% of companies that attributed headcount reduction to AI will rehire staff to perform similar functions, but under different job titles, according to Gartner, Inc, a business and technology insights company.”

AE&AI Insight: Gartner’s predictions reveal that it is important to think about value-informed, long-term growth over short-term gains, particularly in customer service where automation is moving quickly. Is AI really the right tool for the job? Is it sustainable? The most efficient decision today may not be the wisest or most sustainable over the long term.

PROCESS
Deloitte to partially refund Australian government for report with apparent AI-generated errors

“Deloitte Australia will partially refund the 440,000 Australian dollars ($290,000) paid by the Australian government for a report that was littered with apparent AI-generated errors, including a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment and references to nonexistent academic research papers.”

AE&AI Insight: Integrating AI tools into your daily professional and personal processes offers significant potential for efficiency. However, without key governance and guardrails for AI use, the potential impact on reputation and the bottom line could be real.  Values should shape governance. Governance should shape practice.

PRIORITIES
Putting the ‘I’ in AI

“At our company, we emphasize that through the Mastercard Way, built on behaviors such as “learn and pivot” and “help each other be great.” These principles create a safe environment for innovation and responsible experimentation.”

AE&AI Insight:  Mastercard’s approach shows how AI adoption can be informed by corporate values and culture. In practice, this means encouraging iteration while keeping humans “in the loop and in the driver’s seat.” Auditing alignment between practice and intent as adoption progresses is key to ensuring that organizational values are protected as organizations move forward with AI adoption or use.

Five Resources to Explore

1. AI Isn’t a Technology Problem, It’s a Culture Problem Podcast - Dr. Clark Cully, brings experience in technology, government, and education to the topic of responsible AI leadership.

2. What is AI Governance - IBM | A primer providing a deeper dive on technical AI governance.

3. AI Anxieties and Radical Optimism - Taylor Barkley | An article on balancing the concerns and benefits of AI adoption while leaning into optimism.

4. Beyond Verification — What Responsible AI Really Demands of Human Experts - MIT Sloan Management Review | An article featuring various perspectives on the role of human oversight and input in Responsible AI.

5. From Responsible to Redemptive - Missional AI | A free e-book outlining principles for Christian leaders to consider while navigating AI.

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