why are AI principles and policies so important?

Regardless of the size of your company or the industry you’re in, it’s likely that your employees are already using AI tools to streamline their daily work. According to our 2024 Employer Brand Research, A quarter of the UK workforce regularly use AI, with 10% using it daily. These tools get more powerful every day, and they hold the potential to enhance your team members’ existing skills. But as the technology spreads, the potential risks grow.

For that reason, it’s time for your company to make its position on AI clear. With an AI policy, potentially combined with a set of official AI principles, your company can set clear rules and expectations for AI use within the organisation – creating confidence and clarity internally and creating a foundation AI compliance.

This article shouldn’t be seen as legal advice, but based on our AI experience, we’ll cover the top reasons to develop an AI policy or set of principles and hopefully inspire you to start creating them for your company.

• they’re an important part of legal compliance
  
  Concerns over intellectual property have grown as generative AI becomes more powerful, and AI-specific legislation will soon come into force in some jurisdictions. When combined with effective education and enforcement, an AI policy can set a clear framework of expectations and contribute to keeping your company in the clear.
   
• they create a common understanding of the technology
  
  It’s easy to say that employees should use AI ‘responsibly’ or in an ‘acceptable’ way. But what does this actually mean in reality? The definition may vary depending on the person using the AI tool, the task they’re using it for, or the department they’re working in. Defining these terms in a policy document gets everyone on the same page from the start.
   
• they align AI use with your company’s values
  
  Most companies include qualities like trust, security and ethical behaviour in their list of core values, and all AI initiatives should align with these values. Creating and distributing a universal AI policy helps guide the use of AI in your organisation and ensures your company can stand behind its use of AI.
   
• they can help you use AI to its full potential
  
  Despite all these words of caution, modern AI is an incredibly powerful tool, with hugely beneficial use cases in almost all areas of your business – from marketing to R&D. When deployed together with effective training, an AI policy or set of principles can help you use the technology to its full potential while reducing the risk of improper use.
   
• they can maintain your reputation
  
  The media loves stories about embarrassing AI blunders – like the news of the lawyer who included completely fictitious cases in legal documents submitted to a Canadian court after doing her research with a popular AI tool. Mistakes like these can severely damage your company’s reputation. A policy alone can’t prevent AI misuse entirely, but when implemented together with quality training, it can create an awareness of the risks of AI and establish a process for reducing risks – for example, by requiring that AI-generated suggestions be thoroughly reviewed by a human in your policy, you can avoid them.

• they boost employee confidence
  
  AI is not a new technology, but AI tools have never been so powerful and user-friendly as they are today. The modern AI landscape is still developing, and many professionals are keen to learn more about how these tools can aid them in their work. By setting out your principles and boundaries in an official document, you can give them a solid foundation and confidence to start experimenting. 
   
• they will expand your AI knowledge
  
  Creating an effective policy will involve investigating the potential legal risks, data challenges and ethical issues that AI use poses. During this process, you’ll learn the facts of what AI really means for your company – and you and your employees will become better, more effective AI users as a result.
   
• they strengthen your employer brand
  
  Despite its global impact, many major companies are still silent on their attitude to AI. But by following Randstad’s lead and sharing your AI principles externally, you’ll show employees and potential recruits that you’re a modern, thought-leading company that quickly adapts to the world around it – a positive quality in any employer.

• they could help you prepare for the future of AI 
  
  Today, the importance of digital privacy is well-known, and all companies covered by GDPR need to have a privacy policy in place. It’s not unreasonable to think that in the future, companies may also need an AI policy in place for the benefit of their customers, employees and online contacts. This reality is still far away, but working on your AI compliance now will put you in a stronger position in the future.
   
• they contribute to your culture of responsible AI use
  
  Responsible AI use means implementing AI in an ethical, positive way that benefits people and enhances their existing capabilities – rather than replacing them entirely. Developers of AI tools and the major companies that use them are increasingly focusing on responsible AI as a way to gain the benefits of AI while minimising its potential drawbacks. 

The task of creating your own AI principles or policies is relatively easy compared to building a responsible AI culture within the company. However, once that culture is in place, your principles and policy can act as a common reference point and source of answers for your colleagues.

To get started, make sure to download our flowchart to identify responsible AI use in your company. If you’re new to the topic, it uses a list of yes or no questions to help you understand if an AI use case is responsible and provides tips on how to make your company’s use of AI more ethical and effective.