Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 3rd Party Tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & 3rd Party tools incorporating AI capabilities are amazing technologies that can provide real competitive advantage, business process improvements and workplace efficiency gains within your organisation. In particular "generative AI" tools have surged in popularity given their accessibility and ability to automate simple tasks, create content, generate data insights, and even engage in customer service.

Leveraging these tools can be an exciting opportunity to enhance productivity and creativity, however before you or your teams jump in you need to consider several key factors. We have pulled together what we believe is a good summary of things to consider, especially for NZ based commercial and not for profit sector customers, a list of recommended generative AI platforms to get started with, and some key tips for you to consider as well.

Firstly, it is more than likely that you are already using AI within your organisation today in various guises. Two areas that this is most likely in are:

• Your cloud-based applications, many of which have been utilising AI within their platforms for many years, a trend that has further accelerated recently!
• Your people are likely to be using generative AI tools within the workplace today on an individual basis - there are literally thousands of freely accessible tools online as well as many apps available on smartphones, with more being added daily!

The second point is the one that typically presents the most privacy, data & security risk. Let's review some key things to look for and some tips around these...

It’s essential to understand how generative AI platforms handles any data you input into them. Most of the free services collect, store, or use your data for their own purposes, including improving their models. Some may be developed from untrusted locations and may gather data for even less reputable purposes. Fundamentally, you must ensure that sensitive personal & organisational data (your own, your teams & organisations, and your customers & suppliers) is protected, and is not disclosed or exposed in an unsecure manner, breaching legal & privacy requirements.

Things to look out for:

• Does the AI provider clearly disclose how it handles your data?
• Is your data stored securely, and for how long?
• Are there encryption and anonymization measures in place?
• Does the platform comply with relevant regulations including the NZ Privacy Act, or GDPR or HIPAA if you are operating offshore?

Tip: If the AI tool requires uploading data or documents that include personal or sensitive information, then free tools are typically not a wise choice. Reputable paid for platforms tend to offer more robust security measures (more on this below).

A critical point to consider is whether you own the content generated by AI tools. Some platforms (especially free ones) may claim rights to the data generated by their models, which could lead to legal complications, especially if you plan to use the output commercially.

Things to verify:

• Does the platform allow you to retain full ownership of the AI-generated content?
• Are there any clauses in the terms and conditions regarding the reuse or reselling of AI-generated materials?

Tip: Always read the terms and conditions of AI platforms, especially when using them for business purposes. If you’re unsure, seek advice!

Your use of AI tools is likely to expand & grow over time, now is the time ensure that you have the right tools for the job in place, ones that scale with your needs, are supportable and flexible. It is also good to have a standard approach across your organisation, as your teams will benefit from shared learnings, training and more consistent outcomes from internal AI use.

Things to assess:

• Can the AI tool handle larger data volumes & more complex tasks?
• What kind of customer support & training is available?
• Is there any history of downtime or performance issues?
• Is the platform evolving with new features and updates to stay relevant?

Tip: Even if you're just starting out, you should still utilise a cost effective but secure, supported and scalable AI platform.

Many software as a service vendors incorporate AI into their platforms already. This is often the best use case for AI as the vendor invests a lot of specialist skills into utilising AI specifically to maximise efficiency and data insights within a typically secure platform.

Things to assess:

• Do your existing software providers have AI capabilities?
• Do they plan to implement them in the future?

Tip: If you are assessing a new software service ask to see their AI capabilities both today and their roadmap for development of these. This, plus all the standard efficiency, usability, security and accessibility functions should form a key part of your decision making.