Using AI Doesn’t Have to Be Wrong – Create a Values-Driven AI Policy in 3 Steps
The views expressed by the business participants are their own.
As artificial intelligence continues to integrate into all areas of business, the key to future-proofing your brand lies not only in adoption, but also in aligning it with your core values. It’s hard to escape the feeling that today’s AI technology will dramatically change our work lives in the future. As an entrepreneur, it sounds like a lot of confusing thinking about AI, but here’s something you might not have considered: the product impact of AI adoption.
As an entrepreneur, you may feel more concerned about your ability to deal with AI due to a lack of technology or budget. However, whether your company adopts this new technology or not, your company will be affected because the public is already making assumptions about AI, and soon, people will start to think that all companies use AI. In November 2023, Pew Research found that 52% of Americans were more worried than excited about AI. And it’s possible that with all the exposure Americans are getting, they’re getting weary and weary of AI.
When I started my PR agency for emerging industries in 2008, we had the ability to talk to businesses about leveraging social media to get their connections. Many businesses were understandably skeptical. But while businesses remained sceptical, social media users pushed forward, and eventually, businesses had to buy into using social media.
AI is not like other social media, where the public bought it before it went sour, but companies were slow to adopt it. With AI, the public is skeptical before it is fully integrated into our online lives, but many companies are full steam ahead. AI cynicism combined with increased corporate mistrust makes AI different from businesses. This pervasive doubt can destroy your company’s reputation in many ways. Whether you’re already using AI today or thinking about it, how can you hedge AI brand name risks?
From a brand reputation perspective, the solution is value-driven AI adoption policies. A values-driven policy is a mirror of your brand values.
There are three key competitive advantages of a value-driven AI policy:
- Consistency over technology. As an entrepreneur, you may or may not be an AI expert, but you are an expert in your company. By relying on an AI policy that reflects your brand values, you emphasize your brand’s strengths over the unknown technology future.
- More trust. By keeping technology aligned with people’s values, your company can increase trust with employees, customers, partners and investors while remaining flexible enough to incorporate emerging technologies like AI.
- Staying humble. A values-driven policy also creates longevity that remains flexible in the face of rapidly changing technology.
- Competitive edge. Adopting a values-driven policy early on sets you apart as a leader in behavioral AI deployments that can attract customers and talent.
Building a values-driven AI policy doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, the more deeply you engage with your brand values, the easier it will be. Consider these three pillars of a value-driven AI policy.
Related: How to Apply AI Best Practices to Your Company
Bring people together
Although many say that AI will be “smarter” than humans, we understand what AI lacks. Consider the backlash Google received for running an ad featuring a little girl writing a letter to her hero via AI during the 2024 Olympic Games; Google had to pull the ads. Even AI admits that humans are uniquely defined by our humanity, empathy, mortality, spirituality, emotions, experiences and responses. All human experience is both defined and enhanced by actual human experience. AI can save us time, but AI will always struggle to integrate these unique human characteristics.
The first step is to develop an internal AI council made up of respected stakeholders from HR to marketing. Engaging multiple perspectives will help ensure that your brand and strategic goals are fully represented. In addition, the council improves brand trust, both internally and externally.
Additionally, the values-driven part of your AI policy should highlight the importance of human oversight of AI and the dangers of relying on generative AI, which sometimes contains biases, errors and outright fiction.
Transparency
Technical development is just that, development. Adopting any new technology is expected to some degree, and mistakes are easily forgiven. However, it is important to be transparent with stakeholders about where and how you are using the new technology.
Your values-driven policy can make it clear that you are trying to make decisions that are consistent with your product’s value system. However, sometimes you can miss out, and when you do, you’ll agree to a values-driven solution. Falling on your brand’s sword early on adds personality to your brand, making it more relatable to people.
This is one area where a values-driven policy can be very scalable because instead of constantly revising a specific policy, you can outline the considerations you will make before adopting AI technology. For example, you might outline your brand’s commitment to the disclosure of sensitive data and outline the value-driven considerations your brand takes to do so. This is less of a formal contract and more of a community agreement that you have with stakeholders.
Related: I teach AI and Entrepreneurship. Here’s How Businesses Can Use AI to Better Understand Their Target Customers.
Simplicity
Trusts are created through 50-page user agreements written by attorneys. Keep your values-driven AI policy as straightforward and logical as possible. Boiling down to three significant values is fine.
Simplicity also supports flexibility and durability. Boiling it down to broad values creates a road map for future decision-making and empowers the company to remain loyal while staying true to its values.
The advancement of AI and the skepticism of technology is a great step for both your brand today and the brand of tomorrow. In addition, there is an added benefit of using this time to reinforce your company’s values and products to customers, employees and investors. A values-driven AI policy allows you to celebrate the exciting aspects of AI and the humanizing values of your company, giving you the best of both worlds.
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