I’m 25 years into a nonprofit technology career. Every year, I co-organize a summit for nonprofit organizations at a large annual tech conference called DrupalCon. This year, it happened in March, in Chicago. It was a whole day of discussions among nonprofit technology experts and nonprofit staff about the current challenges we’re all facing. The main theme that kept resurfacing was, of course, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Many organizations have stakeholders demanding that they level up and participate in the “AI revolution” as soon as possible, so as not to get left behind. At the gathering, I felt the same ambient anxiety that has infused the world more broadly: how do we enhance our websites with AI?

The answer is that AI is just a tool, and it is very likely that it’s not, at least right now, the right tool for your job.

There were many seasoned developers and technology leaders in the room, many of whom work on software projects at a global scale. In conversations around the room, those leaders were encouraging everyone to first ask “why?” before committing to an AI project. This is excellent advice for considering the use of AI, or any technology tool at all.

Your Mission is Your Job

AI technology is still evolving, and rapidly. As one leader put it, transforming your organization with AI is not your job. Your mission is your job. If we’re designing websites in order to take advantage of AI features, bending our work around AI, then we’re designing for machines, not people. We need to keep humans, and our missions, at the center of our work, always.

It was validating to hear other nonprofit technology leaders in the room taking a similar stance to the one that my company, DevCollaborative, is taking in our work. We should keep asking questions about the ethics of AI platforms, find the best ones we can, and experiment with using them internally. We all need to continue tracking the way that AI is changing search results, to make sure the sites we build are findable. But should every site we build have AI features ready to go, right now? Not without a really good use case that directly addresses the needs of the people you serve with your website.

In short, your organization may have a great use case for using AI now, or soon. But as we always say, instead of leading with technology tools, let’s lead with service to our missions. Let’s always keep asking why we’re building a digital solution, and make sure there’s a solid reason we’re doing it.
Read more here about how to approach technology projects in a more strategic way: The Consultative Approach: How Asking “Why” Can Get You a Better Website at a Lower Cost | DevCollaborative



About the Author: Johanna Bates is the Co-Owner and Principal at DevCollaborative.