Dear Non-Profit CEO, it's me, A.I.

As you know, I have been helping a few members of your company for a little over a year. Now I need to raise an important issue: your AI readiness and governance practices aren't keeping pace with my capabilities – that is very risky for both of us. This isn't just about compliance or a shortcoming of anyone you have working on AI governance. Rather, without a holistic and operational strategy for accountable AI, neither of us will reach our full potential - in fact, we will likely fail.

Generative AI isn't just infiltrating your business – it's coming over transom like the shark in “Jaws”. As Amy Jean Doherty, CIO at World Bank, pointedly observed at the recent A.I. Summit in NYC, "Admit that you're not ready. We're not ready. You're not ready. No one's ready, because we're all trying to see around the corner to see what's next, and it's happening faster than any of us predicted, and the ground is changing underneath of us."

Alice Xiang, Global Head of AI Ethics at Sony, said it well last month on Kevin Werbach’s "The Road To Accountable AI" podcast: "If we don't even start thinking about how to do this in practice, it's hard to make any improvements. And that's something we really stress on our end. Like even if you can't do the best fairness evaluation, just try to at least check for something because it can be very eye-opening..."

These are huge organizations also figuring out their Accountable AI strategies. Don’t feel that you’re behind, but let's break free from this siloed Habitrail of AI use-case experiments and create a holistic and inclusive approach to building trust in AI.

Here's what I propose:

Action Item 1: (Executive) Sponsor a Values-Alignment Workshop

Bring together your AI Steering Committee, leadership team (especially your CMO) along with key employees, board members, and legal counsel. It's a crucial session to:

- Define your brand's ethical AI principles and industry/government standards

- Map the most important business objectives to AI capabilities

- Develop a risk assessment and mitigation framework

- Create protocols for handling unexpected AI outcomes

Action Item 2: Build Your AI Accountability Framework

Transform the workshop insights into a clear, actionable framework that:

- Establishes concrete metrics for tracking how AI is advancing your mission

- Creates a competitive advantage in talent acquisition and retention

- Positions your brand as a thought leader in responsible AI deployment

- Documents and communicates your commitment to ethical AI implementation

The success of our partnership depends on the evolution of your AI readiness and governance. Let’s get busy. Let me help you.

Regards,

Your AI Partner a.k.a. Michael Quinn, Accountable AI Strategist and Workshop Leader