AI Policy Making for Marketing and All Organizations

“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” —Eliezer Yudkowsky (American computer scientist and Researcher)

AI adoption will only continue to grow, and the integration within organizations will expand throughout marketing and other departments and users. Most of us were already behind before we knew what AI was or its availability.

Now that many of us have adopted various AI marketing applications and tools to support many other departments, it’s beyond time to get our arms around its usage and understand its possible effect on businesses now and in the future.

Businesses and their leadership teams need to develop and implement AI guidelines within their organization to safeguard intellectual property (IP), business privacy, and the personal data of employees, customers, and the general public. An AI governance framework is needed to communicate the importance of clear guidelines around AI usage, data handling, and ethical considerations.

Your initial AI policy should outline best practices for ensuring compliance with regulations, protecting proprietary information, and maintaining trust with customers and employees. Include tasks to implement and monitor AI plans that protect your company’s IP and privacy. It should also outline the importance of ethical AI usage and processes for educating employees on expectations to prevent data breaches and tool misuse.

Understanding the Necessity of AI Guidelines

Companies and their employees take many risks associated with the unregulated use of AI. The potential negative impacts of AI on IP, data privacy, and a business’s brand reputation cannot be overemphasized. This recommendation is based on the little we know about the ability and expanse of AI use in our society.

There may be more concerns that we have not even become aware of. Despite this negative view on the use of AI, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be used for all of the beneficial purposes we have previously covered. However, it should be governed by policies that are clear, transparent, and accountable.

“Companies need a real commitment to building AI trust and governance capabilities. These are the principles, policies, processes, and platforms that assure companies are not just compliant with fast-evolving regulations, but also able to keep the kinds of commitments that they make to customers and employees in terms of fairness and lack of bias.” - McKinsey senior partner Jorge Amar on adopting gen AI agent technology in “The promise and the reality of gen AI agents.”

Developing AI Usage Policies

I would bet very few businesses have tackled developing AI policies due to a combination of limited resources and education and the overwhelming task ahead.

Any organization’s AI strategy should include all business departments and ensure compliance with marketing, operations, IT, finance and accounting, sales, and any additional departments within your company.

Here are 7 high-level steps for creating AI policies for marketing and all other departments within your organization.

1. The Board or executive leadership team should start by assessing the existing situation and gathering information on the potential and current use of AI for their business needs. This may entail surveying department heads or compiling input from the entire organization.

This initial step should also bring to light any risks to the company as they relate to intellectual property, privacy, security, and state or federal regulations. Understanding relevant laws and regulations and engaging your legal experts for guidance is imperative to ensuring a transparent and legal strategy.

2. A permanent team or task force should be created to lead the strategy, implementation, ongoing management, and review of AI policies and business use. This starts with defining the purpose of AI use, the scope of the policy and procedures, ownership roles and responsibilities, definitions, requirements, and even consequences.

This group should execute an assessment of current AI applications available and beneficial to their business needs. It’s important to start with the goals of the business and how AI can support reaching those goals.

3. Specific tools should be identified as acceptable for departments and employees to use. These tools should be sanctioned as approved tools or platforms, and a framework for the process of introducing new AI options for AI risk management should be established.

Meticulously review any application’s terms and conditions, understanding any restrictions, rights, ownership, and usage outlined by the AI system. Contracts are a must, but clarity is needed before signing any contracts, and for general public tools, understand that their Ts & Cs may have the right to change at any time.

4. An AI policy should be created outlining the regulations created around the use of AI in the organization, an understanding of what is currently governed by external administrations, what tools currently available will be owned and implemented by the business for internal use only, and specific use cases compliant with the company’s guidelines.

Implementing AI guidelines should be a collaborative effort with a cross-functional team that assesses risk and develops policies that align with the company’s goals, values, and legal requirements.

5. Develop a corporate communications plan to ensure all employees are aware that an internal team is exploring a formal roadmap for AI for business use. Once the policy is finalized, it should be communicated throughout the organization, along with expectations for any changes to current AI usage, new tools or platforms to be implemented, education and training made available, and a clear understanding of the guardrails set to protect the company IP, data, privacy and security.

The task force needs to take steps to educate teams on AI protocols and compliance. Educational materials, training sessions, and tutorials should be developed to ensure everyone understands the policy procedures and AI’s benefits and faults.

6. This will include knowledge of internal and external data privacy regulations, security measures led by IT or Operations, the company’s intellectual properties and contracts created to protect IP, and the limitations of AI as it relates to bias and discrimination in output.

Educating teams on AI protocols will involve training sessions, creating an open environment for discussing ethical concerns, and ensuring all understand the importance of compliance.

7. The task force’s responsibilities should be ongoing as AI changes fast and frequently. Once policies are in place, it's necessary to continually review the process, implement new tools or guidelines as needed, and create a feedback loop for employees.