5 non-scary ways to start working with AI

Everyone is talking about it but it can be daunting to get started with AI, with 46% of people in the charity sector still saying they have never used AI (ThirdSector). But it can seem scary, with ethical concerns hitting the news and 22% of the public believing the risks of using AI outweigh the positives (CAF).

Over the past few weeks, I have learnt as much as possible about AI tools and how they can be used in the non-profit sector. The good news is there are plenty of ways to start using AI tools that are not scary – I promise! Here are five easy ways to get started with AI:

1. Watch: A beginners Guide to AI in the Third Sector

This is one of the first webinars I watched when investigating how non-profits can and should be using AI. I found it to be an excellent introduction and overview of how to get started. The webinar has some great expert speakers: Ha Cole, from Microsoft non-profits, Karen Marter, Head of Tech Strategy at BHF, And Ian Cohen COO at CAF.

The webinar is only 1 hour will motivate you to get started! Watch it here.

2. Generate original images with in-built AI tools

No, we aren’t talking about creating a deep-fake photo or making it appear as if thousands more people turned up to your event! Generative AI can help charities save time and money while creating unique and on-brand graphics. You may already have existing software with these tools built-in.

Adobe Creative Cloud Generative AI tools

If you already have a Adobe Creative Cloud subscription then you will be able to access Adobe’s Generative AI tools.

You can use Adobe Illustrator to generate on-brand IInstagram graphics, creating icons, characters and backgrounds. In this instagram post the illustrated characters are created using Illustrator’s AI:

This is a great way to start using AI imagery as it doesn’t have the ethical concerns that might exist when using AI combined with photography, or with creating misleading lifelike images.

The great thing about these generated images is that they are still editable vectors, so you can tweak them and remove elements if needed. You could also download vector graphics from a stock site such as Freepik and quickly recolour them to your brand colours. Here is a super quick demonstration of how to use Generative Recolor on Freepik image:

Head to the creative cloud learn area to learn more.

Canva AI tools

Canva also now has in-built AI image generation. Just navigate to ‘elements’ and AI image generation. Below is the image generator’s response to the prompt “volunteers in orange shirts at a running event”. Images like this can be great for recruiting for a role or event that doesn’t exist yet but needs a visual reference.

Canva for non-profits gives registered charities access to these tools. Find out more here.

3. Have a chat

ChatGPT is one of the most talked about conversation-based generative AI tools. These tools use LLMs to generate text based on prompts given by the user.

The best way to get started is to have a play around with asking it some questions. Here are some topics ChatGPT could help you with and some example prompts:

• Generate some evergreen content ideas for Instagram
  “Give me ideas for shareable Instagram posts for a charity that supports people with arthritis”
• Create an outline for a blog post
  “I want to write a blog post about a new volunteer who has moved from the finance sector, how could I frame this?”
• Create a framework for a policy or presentation
  “What should I include in a new policy for volunteer safety”
• Plan a project
  “What are the important stages of a new website development project”

You might be surprised how useful the results can be! They may just be ideas, but you can then pick and choose the ones that work for you, or just use them as starting points or an outline. Always make sure you are checking anything written by ChatGPT, as it can make mistakes or ‘hallucinations’.

4. Transcribe video and audio

Transcription tools have improved a lot in recent years, giving much more accurate text that can be used in a variety of ways.

Tools such as otter.ai can quickly transcribe video or audio to text. You can use this on existing videos to:

• Create subtitles
• Quickly choose favourite snippets for editing
• Get quotes to use on social media or in written reports
• Get a key quote to overlay on a thumbnail

You can also now use transcription tools to transcribe meetings in real-time. This is a great way to capture an interview with a supporter and have accurate quotes ready-to-use. (Always let anyone in the meeting know if you plan to record them in this way!)

5. Cutting down text/summaries 

If you have a longer article or report that you need to post to social media, you can create a quick summary using AI tools.

Here I asked Microsoft’s CoPilot to create a tweet about my recent blog post:

It’s not bad and could be used for Linkedin but it won’t fit in the X/Twitter character limit, so I’ve asked it to tweak it:

This method of creating content should help avoid hallucinations because your chosen AI tool should only use the content you have provided it with. You may need to be more specific with your prompts and tell the tool only to use data in the content you have given it. Always check though!

More resources

Hopefully, once you have tried out these five ways to use AI you will feel more confident and have thought about some ways it could be useful to your organisation.

Once you start to use AI in public-facing communications it is good practice to be transparent about this and think about introducing an AI policy.

Luckily, there are lots of useful, free resources available to help charities learn more about using AI. I have linked a few of my favourites below:

• CharityComms AI hub – articles, webinars and other resources
• Google Cloud Skills Boost – free courses if you want to learn more about how AI works
• Charity Digital AI hub – lots of resources including podcasts and webinars