30/07/26

How do you turn your AI policy, principles, framework or strategy into reality?

What does it mean to be good at AI?

When was the last time you used AI? What did you use it for, and do you think you used it well?

AI is becoming part of our everyday working life. But while many organisations are encouraging people to use it, far fewer are helping people understand what ‘good’ looks like, or what it means to use AI well on a typical working day.

In our recent webinar, Acteon’s Owen Rose and James Woodman explored a simple question: how do we help people be good at AI? Watch the webinar now.

The gap between AI strategy and reality

Senior leaders in every sector are grappling with how to encourage AI adoption in ways that are both effective and safe. But there can be a gap between an organisation’s AI aspirational principles (“we use AI ethically and responsibly”) and the reality of everyday use by individual employees.

Our recent research, conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), explains this in terms of three fundamental tensions around AI adoption that shape how people use the tools.

The results any organisation gets come down to individual behaviour:

Do I use AI in the first place?
Do I upload that sensitive data?
Do I review the output before using it?

Decisions like these play a huge part in determining whether AI outcomes are positive or negative. They can quickly become unconscious habits. But often people don’t even realise they’re making a choice – and many leaders acknowledge that they have limited visibility into what’s happening.

The solution: from principles to practice

The solution is to translate AI principles into everyday actions. Instead of just encouraging employees to use AI for more things, more of the time, organisations need to invest in helping people understand how to use it well.

How do you work with an AI tool to get the best results?
How do you balance efficiency with critical thinking?
How do you apply your own judgement and stay in control?

Those aren’t about technology. They’re about simple, human actions that make it possible for organisations to respond to opportunities and manage risks.

Help people make better choices

Changing what you do yourself is hard. Think about the last time you made a resolution or joined a gym. Changing other people’s behaviour is even harder.

If you want people to use AI well, you need to make it easy for them to make better choices. Choices linked to positive outcomes for them, their team, and the whole organisation.

That’s the thinking behind Acteon’s approach, and the free How to be good at AI videos. They promote small, easy behaviours linked to best practice. Over time, these can become established habits that help your people get better at AI.