// FEATURE // the channels at your disposal, leadership buyin is crucial in helping spread the message and getting staff on board.

Training, on an ongoing basis, is also essential in ensuring that employees understand how to use and apply permitted AI tools to get the most out of them, whilst minimising areas of risk and should be made mandatory.

Finally, a good workplace AI policy should be reviewed regularly. At the moment, every six months may be considered appropriate in such a rapidly evolving field. AI audits are also considered good practice to ensure compliance and provide a useful barometer of the quality and accuracy of the tools being used, as well as highlighting any newer tools which may prove more effective.

Help on the horizon?

SME leaders across the UK have urged the government to offer subsidised training to help them navigate the rapid advancements in AI.

It is one of a series of recommendations put forward in a new report from Goldman Sachs,

Generation Growth: The Growth Agenda, which sought input from hundreds who took part in the bank’ s 10,000 small businesses management training programme.

Training would undoubtedly increase confidence in the implementation of AI, with our own research highlighting the ability to use it safely and effectively one of the main concerns for businesses.

Hill Dickinson was somewhat unlucky in that its staff memo was leaked to the BBC and became a news story, but the firm should in fact be lauded for having a policy and procedures in place which enabled it to quickly identify and take steps to address an increase in usage.

Businesses that have not made sufficient preparations to regulate the use of AI could find themselves facing a hefty fine from the Information Commissioner’ s Office for AI misuse, or even hauled before the courts, so it is well worth laying the foundations by putting a robust policy in place now. �

BUSINESSES MAY, AS PART OF THEIR POLICY, PROVIDE GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE PROPER USE OF AI AT WORK IN ORDER THAT IT IS BOTH EFFECTIVE AND APPROPRIATE.

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