Enabling the volunteering sector to make informed technology decisions in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape is the focus of a new project led by The University of Western Australia.
Associate Professor Ronnie Das, from UWA's Business School, is collaborating on the project with Professor Sanjit Roy, from Edith Cowan University, and researchers from universities in the UK, France and Norway.
"Most charity organisations in Australia are using AI at a basic level, like ChatGPT, but there is a lot more to consider especially when implementing it at a scale for personal and organisational data," Associate Professor Das said.
"AI implemented at an enterprise level can streamline less human intensive work and improve operational efficiency, such as onboarding volunteers, but you need to be aware of potential risks."
Phase one of the project is under way and involves surveying managers and CEOs from Volunteering WA and its member organisations.
"The volunteering sector often has less resources so implementing AI enables processes to be streamlined and can create time for more human engagement in other areas," Professor Roy said.
The findings from the first phase of the project will be combined to create an initial best-practice guide for the industry to inform how it could adopt AI usage for operational efficiency.
"We hope to investigate the best way to build AI literacy and capabilities within Volunteering WA and member organisations," Associate Professor Das said.
"The project will be help charity organisations to implement AI responsibly and build stakeholder trust."
Phase two of the project will widen the scope to learn from some of the global charitable organisations.
"We are going to do a wider survey with the volunteering organisations to see how ready they are for AI and if there is anything hindering uptake, such as financial barriers," Associate Professor Das said.
Volunteering WA CEO Tina Williams said it was important to acknowledge that there were significant challenges to implementing AI technology and there was no 'one-size fits all' approach.
"By exploring the special circumstances and needs of the volunteering sector in WA, we hope to gain unique insights, including identification and mitigation of volunteering sector-specific risks, and a practical AI Adoption Roadmap for the volunteering sector," Ms Williams said.
