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As AI continues to integrate into every aspect of business, the key to future-proofing your brand is not only embracing it, but also aligning it with your core values. It’s hard to shake the feeling that today’s AI technologies will seriously change our work lives in the future. As an entrepreneur, this looks like a dizzying array of AI considerations, but here’s one other one chances are you’ll not have considered: the impact of AI adoption on your brand.
As an entrepreneur, chances are you’ll feel deeply concerned about your ability to handle AI due to a lack of information or budget. However, whether your organization adopts these latest technologies or not, your small business will likely be affected because public opinion is already shaping opinions about AI, and soon people will start to assume that each one corporations use AI. In November 2023, Pew Research found that 52% of Americans more concerned than excited about AI. And it’s possible that with all the exposure that Americans get, they too more and more bored with artificial intelligence.
When I began my PR agency for emerging industries In 2008, we became adept at talking to corporations about integrating social media into their communications. Many corporations were understandably skeptical. But while corporations remained skeptical, social media users were full steam ahead, and eventually corporations had to buy into the use of social media.
AI is different from other social media, where people bought into it before it went sour, but corporations have been slower to adopt it. In the case of AI, people are skeptical even before it’s fully integrated into our online lives, but many corporations are fully committed. Cynicism about AI, combined with heightened corporate distrust, makes AI different for corporations. This rampant skepticism can spill over into your organization’s repute in a number of the way. Whether you’re already using AI, are you considering about how you’ll be able to protect yourself from AI-related brand repute risks?
From a brand repute perspective, the solution is value-based AI implementation policies. Value-based policies are a reflection of your brand values.
A values-based AI policy provides three key competitive benefits:
- Consistency over technologyAs an entrepreneur, chances are you’ll or will not be an AI expert, but you are the expert in your organization. By adopting an AI policy that reflects your brand values, you are highlighting your brand’s strengths in the face of an unknown technological future.
- More trustBy keeping technology in check with human values, your organization can increase trust with employees, customers, partners, and investors while remaining agile enough to integrate latest technologies like AI.
- Staying agileValue-based policies also create longevity that continues to be agile in the face of rapidly changing technologies.
- Competitive advantageEarly adoption of a values-based policy sets you apart as a leader in the ethical use of AI, which might attract customers and talent.
Developing a values-based AI policy doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, the more you engage with your brand values, the easier it can be. Consider these three pillars of a values-based AI policy.
Get people involved
While many argue that AI will likely be “smarter” than humans, we have an innate understanding of what it lacks. Consider the backlash Google received when it ran an ad featuring a little girl writing a letter to her hero about AI at the 2024 Olympics; Google was forced to pull the ads. Even AI recognizes that humans are uniquely defined by our humanities, empathy, mortality, spirituality, emotions, experiences, and responses. The entire human experience is each defined and enriched by real human experience. AI can save us time, but AI will all the time struggle to contextualize these uniquely human elements.
The first step is to develop an internal AI council of reputational stakeholders from HR to marketing. Engaging multiple perspectives will help ensure your brand and strategic goals are fully represented. It also builds trust in your brand, each internally and externally.
In addition, a part of a value-based AI policy should emphasize the importance of human oversight of AI and the dangers of relying on generative AI, which is sometimes biased, error-prone, and pure fiction.
Transparency
Developing technology is simply developing. Adoption of any latest technology is expected to some extent, and mistakes are easier to forgive. Still, it’s vital to be transparent with your stakeholders about where and the way you’re implementing latest technologies.
Your values-based policy can clearly indicate that you simply strive to make decisions that are consistent with your brand’s values. However, there could also be times when you fall in need of expectations, and when you do, you acknowledge this with a values-based solution. Falling on the sword of a brand in advance adds humanity to it, making it more relatable to people.
This is one area where value-based policies are particularly scalable, because as a substitute of always updating the policy with details, you’ll be able to clearly outline the considerations you’ll make before adopting AI technology. For example, you’ll be able to clearly outline your brand’s commitment to disclosing sensitive data and outline the value-based considerations your brand makes in doing so. This is less of a legal contract and more of a social contract that you simply have with your stakeholders.
Simplicity
Trust is not built on 50-page user agreements written by lawyers for lawyers. Keep your AI value-based policy as easy and sensible as possible. Boiling it down to three key values is ideal.
Simplicity also supports flexibility and scalability. Boiling it down to broad values creates a roadmap for future decision-making and allows the company to remain agile while remaining true to its values.
Overtaking Skepticism about AI and technology It’s a good move for each your brand today and your brand tomorrow. Plus, there’s the additional advantage of using this moment in time to reinforce the value of your small business and brand to customers, employees, and investors. A values-driven AI policy allows you to have a good time the exciting points of AI and the humanizing values of your small business, providing you with the better of each worlds.