Implementing AI tools

So you've really baked in a lot of these responsible AI principles in there, and how important is that for organisations to really think about?

I think for where we are with technology at the moment, particularly in the field we're in like the legal field, we can't get it wrong. You know, we have to be right. Because you've got the one, the potential reputational risks or damage to the individual, the detriment they might suffer from wrong advice. And then more selfishly, the organisation’s reputational risk. You know, that if they were to get it wrong using AI and it was kind of unfiltered advice given and that was wrong, it could ruin an organisation like Citizens Advice because trust is a key part of our brand. And if people think, well, we can't trust the advice you've given us because it's just AI, you know, then that could potentially be the end of Citizens Advice.

So it is… not just for us, I think for any organisation, it's really important at this moment in time with AI that there is a human-in-the-loop process baked into it, and that there is human oversight and that AI is there to augment the process and not seeking to be a shortcut to replace the process.

Another element as well as them being guard rails, one of the other things we wanted to protect is the human experience. So a key part of our service for a particular cohort of our clients is, they approach us and they're often vulnerable. They're often distressed. They're often angry. And what they want is to be able to speak to somebody and for that person to have the empathy and the emotional intelligence to be able to not only deescalate a potential challenging call, but also relay sometimes quite complex and sometimes not the answer the person wants to hear, in a way that that is gonna land.

And again, that human-to-human contact is so important. So that's why AI is there. What the AI does is help the advisor to be more present in that advice session, because Caddy’s doing the kind of grunt work of the research, and they can focus on delivering that message.

Excellent. So in terms of top tips… I think you've touched on some of them, but what would be your top tips to other organisations thinking about using AI within their service?

One, involving the people impacted by it. So the people who will be using it and the people whose job will be changed by using it, making sure they’re a key stakeholder in that design process, that you're getting their thoughts and they feel involved. So again, acting with a kind of transparency.

Having guardrails as well, you know, having human oversight. I think at the moment, having that human-in-the-loop process is just so important, to have human oversight over any kind of generative AI system. I think that is essential.

But also just kind of thinking about what we're trying to replace here and what are we replacing it with. I think that's the important things. And making sure that AI is there to amplify the things that you want to do, you know, rather than replace things that might be essential.