AI for IT Directors in Housing

Review existing policies in light of AI — data protection is crucial but not sufficient to act ethically. Map AI risk into your enterprise risk register.

Cyber risk has gone up. Follow NCSC guidance. At minimum, get Cyber Essentials right now in preparation for the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.

Consider creating a plain-English customer charter to engage residents about how you will use AI, with fairness and ethical principles embedded. Consider co-design of AI-enabled projects.

Work out how you are going to govern AI and integrate it into your organisational strategy — and how you will keep up with new risks and opportunities.

Ensure data sensitivity is controlled and that existing assurance structures (such as the Audit and Risk Committee) are equipped to audit effectively.

Use AI as a vehicle to get data integrity up the strategic agenda — it is in the Better Social Housing Review, the Sector Risk Profile and the Grenfell Inquiry Report.

Continue to modernise infrastructure, favouring architectures that support easy aggregation of data across core systems.

Move towards HACT UK Housing Data Standards for key domains to align with others in the sector — common data standards will allow AI models to be more easily shared between providers.

Support board and executive teams to be data-driven. Triangulation of TSMs, ombudsman rulings, internally handled complaints and social media data gives a richer view of service quality.

Understand your technology vendor roadmaps. For most providers, much of your AI will be embedded in core systems rather than self-developed.

Create acceptance criteria for enabling any embedded AI — accuracy tests, bias checks, rollback capability, auditability and explainability.

Set up an internal AI Community of Practice to understand who is already doing what in your organisation. Your colleagues will be using AI in their personal lives and want to bring that benefit to their work.

Blocking AI tools on your network is not a robust solution — users can easily take photographs or email data to themselves. Instead, publish "safe patterns" for common low-risk tasks.

Use your community of practice to uncover small use cases. Keep focus on value, not on implementing AI for AI's sake. Start small. Use these cases to support a culture shift.

Build a reusable AI playbook: experiment template, DPIA template, red-lines, rollout checklist, benefits tracking.

Ignore most vendor AI-washing and focus on customer outcomes. Do consider products which use AI to deliver value, particularly if successfully implemented by others in the sector.

Other housing providers are all somewhere on the journey too. Share knowledge with your peers. Attend and participate in sector forums and working groups such as HAILIE, HACT and NHF.

Share and reuse policies, roadmaps, use cases, models and successes. Open licensing models such as Creative Commons allow this to happen openly.