AI Series: AI, staff and policy: is your organisation keeping pace?

AI, staff and policy moving at different speeds.

Much of the discussion around AI in local government has focused on the technology – what we allow into our systems and the guardrails we need to put in place around it.   

This is important, but it is so embedded into our lives inside and outside work we also need to know how staff may already be using it to make sure we are in the strongest place possible. This is not a question over whether employees are using AI, they are. 

A strong organisation understands how people are using it, where they are finding value, and what that experience tells us about the policies, processes and controls we need. Without the right workforce intelligence, we risk creating policy based on assumptions rather than evidence. 

Start with understanding 

The reality is that AI is increasingly becoming part of everyday work. 

Staff are likely using it to support many areas of their work from drafting to analysis, coding and speeding up processes. And that can be transformative in freeing up their capacity exactly where we want it, to make evidence-based judgements, progress practical work and enable sound decisions.  

The specific tools may vary, and the extent of usage may differ between teams, but the direction of travel is clear. Organisations should focus on understanding where it exists, how it is being used, and what outcomes it is creating. That insight provides a far stronger foundation for decision-making than either blanket enthusiasm or blanket restriction. 

Using your AI insights 

Once organisations have a clearer picture of workforce behaviour, they are better placed to make proportionate decisions. 

Not every use of AI carries the same level of risk. 

Using AI to help structure a presentation is very different from using it to process sensitive information or influence high-impact decisions. Without understanding real-world usage, it is difficult to distinguish between low-risk activities that could be encouraged and higher-risk activities that may require tighter controls and deeper ethical scrutiny. 

The objective should not be to create barriers for the sake of it. It should be to put appropriate safeguards around the areas that genuinely need them. 

Enable good practice 

Understanding current usage also creates an opportunity to support staff more effectively. 

Across many organisations, there are likely to be examples of individuals and teams already finding practical work more efficiently. That experience has value and is a real opportunity to promote good practice. 

Providing people with clear guidance, practical examples and confidence in what good use looks like is often more effective than relying on policy documents alone. 

Is your policy framework keeping pace? 

While your standalone AI policy may be useful, it can also create the impression that AI is a discrete issue that sits alongside existing governance arrangements. 

In reality, it has reach beyond that single policy document.  AI has the potential to expose assumptions embedded across dozens of organisational policies, including: 

• Information governance, cybersecurity 

•  and data protection 

• Recruitment 

• Procurement 

• Communications 

• Freedom of Information correspondence and complaints handling 

• Equality 

• Performance management 

• Democratic services 

In many cases, these policies were written before AI tools became as widely accessible to employees and residents alike. Questions that once felt theoretical are becoming more practical and more pertinent. One worth asking is: when did you last review your policies because technology changed? 

Traditionally, policy review cycles have operated on the assumption that change happens at a manageable and regular pace. AI may raise challenge to that frequency.  

Strong organisations need to have a shared understanding of what good governance looks like when employees can analyse, summarise and generate information in entirely new ways, how AI-generated content should be handled within data management processes and how we want to approach AI-assisted communications. 

This cuts across the wider operating framework of the organisation. 

The issue is not that every policy needs rewriting overnight. But organisations may need to think differently about how they monitor technological change, identify emerging impacts and keep governance arrangements up to date. 

Organisations need to use workforce experience to continuously improve policy, process and practice and create honest feedback loops between governance and service. That will help ensure policies, processes and governance evolve as quickly as the technology and the workforce using it.