The Charity IT Leaders Annual Conference

The Charity IT Leaders Annual Conference

Yes - that’s right, we’ve got a wee treat for you - a podcast with some highlights from the 25th Anniversary Charity IT Leaders Conference hosted by Jane Huntington and myself. Scroll down for a summary.

But first, a few thoughts that I’ve had building around AI in the past few weeks. I hinted at some of this in a post last week and it generated a lot of feedback, so I thought it was worth digging slightly deeper.

For a while now, I’ve becoming increasingly concerned at how the pace of change in the development of AI is leading to exceptionally wide variations in perception and understanding of the challenges, pitfalls and possible futures we expect related to Artificial Intelligence.

Let’s start with a really simple bit of research.

77% of employees paste data into AI tools (primarily their personal ChatGPT account). This stat comes from a report by a security company, LayerX. and is based on data they’ve seen in users of their platform (hence they have an interest in highlighting the challenge).

For years, Tech teams have put in place ever more measures to prevent data leakage - blocking unencrypted USB sticks, features in email that catch files on the way out the door, mobile device management to prevent leaks on personal devices, to name a few. Now, we find out that people across the organisation are pasting data into their own accounts on ChatGPT (probably the free version).

Does your organisation have an effective way of blocking this?

Does your CISO have a way to audit the data leaving the organisation in this way?

Probably not, I would guess. There are a variety of ways to catch this type of thing - maybe think a bit more about the balance between ease of use and security.

Now, why I am going down this rabbit-hole? Well, it’s because I’ve seen that AI tools and adoption are moving and changing very rapidly, and people’s understanding and adoption has a wide spread. People love using personal AI tools, but corporate adoption of AI tools (within the charity sector), whilst faster than I expected, is still moving ahead cautiously.

The general public’s understanding of AI is heavily based on their usage of ChatGPT - and perhaps a good chunk of staff in your organisation may fit into that same category?

But, the people involved in adoption and delivery of AI tools in companies, are seeing so much more and are really starting to see many benefits - perhaps not as many as the biggest technology companies would tell you, but still enough to make adoption of tools with clearly defined audiences, a no-brainer.

But.

It’s the third category of people that worry me. That’s those people involved, not in corporate tech, but actually involved in the production/piloting of AI tools and technology. I’ve had lots of conversations with people who are leading sector-level transformative initiatives, where they see their corner of the world and the way it operates changing quite significantly in the near future (timeframes vary by industry). From Medical to Legal to Retail to Public Services to Education to Publishing to Policing to Customer Services to Finance to Professional Services - all of them seeing a shift coming; many of them see a dramatic shift coming.

And if you take the pioneers from each of these sectors, and then add them together and start looking holistically, you get quite a dramatically different picture than the one that the ChatGPT user above is seeing. And inevitably there will be a moment when that ChatGPT user smells the coffee - and that seems likely to happen in the next 2 years… even before the next election in the USA or UK (I’m using that event to help illustrate the speed this is coming).

And what about charity in all of this? After all, this is a charity blog. Well… I think the story here, might be slightly different. Change is driven in different ways in charitable organisations. The link between product and income is indirect, and ‘product’ can be hard to define. Often income continues even when the product is unclear. My takeaway is that charities should be thinking about what they can do to build their AI maturity, so that they can be well-placed to use AI to improve their overall ‘beneficiary product’. Initiatives around efficiencies and reduced headcount (or even reduced volunteer headcount… which someone suggested recently to me) should be treated with caution for the moment - these misunderstand the value in charity.

The value in charity is in inspiring and motivating people behind a cause they agree with, to enable a positive change in the world. And reducing the number of people involved reduces, rather than adding to, that value.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this - please do comment, or send me a message / email.

Podcast | Season 3 | Bonus Episode | The Charity IT Leaders Annual Conference

This week’s episode is a short showcase of some of the highlights of the CITL conference a couple of weeks back. We talk with some of the attendees and also a couple of people involved in talks.

Stay Tuned for more insights in future episodes

If you’re new to the podcast - then definitely take a look back at some cracking episodes in the previous two seasons. Whilst there is a storyline flowing through the episodes, they work in any order, so don’t feel obliged to listen to them chronologically.

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If you’re keen for me to feature something going on in your charity, NFP or similar, please get in touch - and do comment on anything in here, or in the podcast that you like.

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About our host and guests

Jane Huntington , Podcast co-Host

Jane has enjoyed over 25 years of working in the non-profit sector. From database marketing in fundraising teams to her current role leading technology teams Jane is passionate about connecting people technology and data to drive delivery of impactful, user-centric solutions that achieve a social impact as well as organisational success. Jane has previously been recognized as Data Professional of the Year by DQM Group and enjoys speaking about the work her teams do at industry events. Jane also volunteers for Guide Dogs and for Charity IT Leaders; married to husband James they have three sons.

Stuart McSkimming, Podcast Host

Stuart is a thought-leader in AI for charities and not-for-profits, and recognised in the 2025 AI100 list of the top 100 people shaping the future of AI in the UK. He is the founder of the sector-specific Technology & AI consultancy, Virtue Chain . He has over twenty years’ experience in NFP/Charity leadership roles, predominantly in the technology/digital and transformation space. He is an expert in getting the most from teams and focusing organisations on strategic goals to get the most from Technology & Digital. He is passionate about organisations focusing on inclusion and finding ways to attract a diverse mix of top talent into their teams. He has worked as a CIO for two organisations – Shelter and Royal British Legion, and also a variety of roles elsewhere. Stuart is extensively networked in the not-for-profit sector both in the UK, and internationally, and is the Vice Chair of top membership organisation, Charity IT Leaders. Stuart enjoys regular public speaking, and also has been known to do stand-up comedy gigs occasionally.

Virtue Chain builds the link between enthusiastic and talented technology teams, and organisation strategic goals. By focusing on people, strategy, governance and decision-making structures, Virtue Chain can help your charity get the right leadership approach across AI, Technology, Digital, Data, and transformation. We use maturity models, and partnering approaches to help trustees, CEO’s and exec leaders see the potential for technology in their organisation, and understand where to start in turning ideas into action.

Get in contact with [email protected] if you’d like to chat. Typically the conversation starts from either a trustee, CEO or CTO level.

In case its not obvious, views expressed are the personal views of the podcast host and guests and don’t necessarily represent those of any organisations they work with or for, either now or in the past.