AI Communications Use Policy for Public Sector

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AI Communications Use Policy for Public Sector

Hello and welcome to Season 6 and Episode 95 of the Public Sector Marketing Show.

2024 is the year of AI isn’t it?

If 2023 was the year ChatGPT went mainstream, 2024 will be year of adaptation to this AI tools and others.

But there is still so much uncertainty and fear around AI being part of our every day and I am having these conversations in public sector boardrooms every week.

But as always, I am here to try to help you take the first or next AI step, so, let’s dive in.

Column – Putting Comms in the AI Driving Seat in Public Sector

Do you have an AI-use policy in your organisation?

I ask this question a lot these days.

And so I thought it deserved its own episode.

I use AI every day of the week, in fact we all do – from Netflix to recommendations to prompting Alexa and Google searches, but its’ marketing AI assistance that I’m talking about in today’s show.

Here is why I think the comms team should be in the AI-policy driving seat:

1️⃣ Understanding the scope of its potential

2️⃣ Marketers must be AI-proficient

3️⃣ Test and learn in your department

4️⃣ Demonstrate the wins – process, scale and buying back time

5️⃣ Marketers are curious – we need to be curious about AI

6️⃣ Then tell your AI-use story to the rest of the organisation

Consulting – What to Include in an AI-Use Policy for Public Sector

It’s 2024 and I’m still writing social media policies for government and public sector clients.

But guess what. It’s time for you to develop an AI-use policy for marketing and communications.

The United Nations has developed an AI-use policy for the organisation and is one of the first public sector agencies to do so.

In 2019, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking at the AI for Good Global Summit, Geneva, 2019 said:

“If we are to harness the benefits of artificial intelligence and address the risks, we must all work together – governments, industry, academia and civil society – to develop the frameworks and systems that enable responsible innovation. […] We must seize the moment, in partnership, to deliver on the promise of technological advances and harness them for the common good.”

So, what should not go into it?

The policy needs a purpose.

It needs some guiding principles, especially around its ethical use.

Specifically, relating to marketing and communications you want to guide teams on what tools can be used as a Marketing Assistant and how they are used.

Ask yourself, is the policy meant to foster expansive use, promote a test and learn approach or restrict use?

Then you need specific guidance around permissions and using AI tools on work devices.

What about governance and oversight.

Interview | ChatGPT

This week, I interviewed AI on ‘AI and Ethics in the Public Sector’. Bizarre, right?

The idea came to me when I tried without success to get an expert on my podcast on this very topic. I did find three experts but their schedule just didn’t align with mine and my subsequent episodes were backed up.

So, I decided to interview AI!