NFPs can amp up AI impact with purpose

The NAIC is the federal agency in the Department of Industry, Science and Resources charged with encouraging the safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence. It provides free training, advice and tools.

According to the agency’s national benchmark study published last month, organisations that had used AI for more than four years reported improved customer experience (60%), enhanced employee engagement (56%) and productivity gains (47%).

NAIC’s scale and impact leader, Brett Szmajda, told Community Directors Intelligence at the Infoxchange Technology for Social Justice conference earlier this year that not-for-profits were well placed to collaborate with like-minded organisations to take advantage of AI.

He said groups were more likely to share information, pool resources and work together on projects. Because of this, well-organised smaller organisations could match it with large corporations in the artificial intelligence arena.

“Purpose is your superpower,” Szmajda said.

“You can use that purpose, and that desire to help as many people as possible, to find technology solutions that enable that.

“Can you be working across your sector to share data, to generate good news stories, that then can be used to get greater funding to get greater impact out of your work to help greater numbers of people?”

Brett Szmajda discusses ways that NFPs can make the most of the AI revolution.

Szmajda said good examples of AI use in the sector included the Justice Connect AI assistant, which allows help seekers to articulate legal dilemmas in “natural language” and connects them to appropriate help.

And he praised the work of Kindship, the social enterprise that produced Barb”, an AI-powered app to guides users through the complex National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), a project supported by an NAIC “AI sprint”.

“Both of these are really good examples of making sure that we're putting the human at the heart, making sure that we're really using the technology to leverage and enhance the opportunities available.”

Addressing conference delegates during a panel discussion about the role of tech in the sector, he acknowledged that many NFPs were already using AI without have done their due diligence, simply to get their work done.

He cited a recent Infoxchange study that showed that while 76 per cent of NFPs were “gobbling up and using … AI like crazy”, just 11 per cent had policies, procedures and governance systems to manage the new tech.

“From what we are seeing at the National AI Centre, there's a willingness, a hunger to adopt these things because of course all the not-for-profit, for-purpose and charity sector are operating on duct tape and string, and they're looking to do anything that they can do to be as efficient as possible, but their organisations don't have the ability, don't have the competency, competency to help them with the structures, the tools, the resources they need.

“The goal of the National AI Centre is to help organisations around Australia to uplift their AI competency and maturity across Australia,” he said.

Guardrails needed for good AI adoption

The NAIC’s means of doing this include providing supporting tools, such as the voluntary AI standard.

The current standard lists 10 “guardrails” to provide protections in the areas of

• Accountability, including governance, skills, and compliance processes
• risk management
• system security and data quality
• testing of AI performance
• human oversight
• alerting users to the use of AI
• allowing users to challenge AI results
• sharing information about AI use with partners
• record keeping that demonstrates compliance
• safety, fairness, and diversity in design

It is understood the NAIC is in the process of simplifying the standard and is set to make further announcements soon, possibly during AI month, which starts in mid-October.

Szmajda said the organisation was developing toolkits and other guidance tied to specific tasks, such as procurement and working with third-party vendors.

He said while there were legitimate concerns among sector advocates such as ACOSS about the replacment of “entry-level jobs” with AI, “a greater capacity to help people with an army of digital workers [is] actually a huge opportunity”.

He stressed that AI was a tool, and that it needed to have “humans be at the centre of all these conversations”.

More information

National Artificial Intelligence Centre’s AI standards, free courses, resources, and directory

The NAIC also hosts an AI impact tracker, free webinars and courses, a directory of AI users, self-assessment tools, and a benchmark for responsible AI adoption across Australia.

Community Directors Intelligence: The AI edition