Get everyone around the table

Responsible AI isn’t about writing a policy and filing it away. It’s a capability your team builds over time, and it gets stronger with practice.

It’s also rarely something one person can do alone. It works best when people from different parts of your organisation bring their perspectives to the table.

You don’t want the first real test of your responsible AI approach to come after something has gone wrong. That’s where our Test your scenario resources come in.

These resources give teams a practical way to work through realistic AI situations and decide what responsible AI looks like in their organisation.

They can also help you identify gaps and assumptions before they become real problems.

The resources use fictional but realistic situations that can arise when businesses use AI without clear governance, controls or oversight.

Instead of discussing responsible AI in theory, your team can work through a situation together: how you would respond, who should be involved, what guidance you would use and whether responsibilities are clear.

The activity can help your team:

• apply the National AI Centre’s essential AI practices
• test how your business would respond to a scenario
• identify gaps in governance, policies and decision-making
• build a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities
• agree on practical actions to improve how AI is used.

You may confirm what’s already working or identify areas that need more attention. Both are useful.

Think beyond your technology team and remember that you don’t need to be an AI expert to get involved. Invite people from areas such as operations, HR, customer service, communications and management, as well as those who use AI tools regularly.

Participants don’t all need the same level of AI experience. Different roles reveal different issues: HR may see workforce impacts, a manager may focus on accountability, and a regular user may spot a practical problem that others miss.

Together, these perspectives can show how AI decisions affect your business and where the use of AI might create an issue you are not yet prepared for. 

Choose a scenario, download the facilitator guide and materials, and bring your group together.

The resources guide the discussion and prompt your team to consider what they would do at each stage.

Capture the questions, decisions and follow-up actions as you go.

You might identify a policy change, an area where your team needs more guidance, or simply leave with a clearer shared approach to using AI. That’s a useful outcome from getting a few people around a table!

Yes – the resources can be adapted to suit your organisation, including the AI tools you use and the issues most relevant to your industry. The more familiar the context feels, the more useful the discussion is likely to be.

Technology not-for-profit Infoxchange adapted the resources for a discussion about AI across the not-for-profit sector, as part of their Digital Transformation Program. They built on the existing tools to create cards and prompts, and hosted 6 in-person workshops with more than 300 participants. 

If you’ve adapted a scenario for your organisation, or have a question, we’d love to hear from you.