Is it a risk not to use AI?

AI is commonplace in the charity sector – with 88% of charities using AI tools in their day-to-day work. With the surge in usage of AI – and the much-reported benefits – is it actually a risk not to use AI? Here are three risks that charity teams might have on their minds.

 

 

Risk 1: Missing out on productivity gains

 

Understandably, many charities might feel they’re missing out on productivity gains by not using AI. While charities struggle financially, often with increased demands, there’s a real attraction, if not necessity, to saving time and money. 

 

Early findings from the Charity Digital Skills Report 2026, showed that 71% of charities use AI for administration and project management and 40% use it for content creation. But as of right now, the productivity gains of AI are hazy.

 

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research surveyed 6,000 executives from the US, UK, Germany and Australia, with nine in ten reporting they’d seen little impact on productivity over the last three years of using AI. And Workday found that 40% of time savings made by using AI are lost due to correcting mistakes, checking sources, and rewriting.

 

Then there’s the accumulative impact of working at increasingly faster speeds. Research at the University of California-Berkeley found that employees using AI were working faster and then taking on a broader scope of tasks: it intensified work rather than reducing it.

 

The researchers point out that those changes can be “unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making.” To counter this, they suggest building in intentional pauses to the workday and protecting human connection time.

 

While AI can improve efficiency in some areas, consider the impact beyond immediate time saving. It could be that reducing your use of AI, or using it more strategically, is a better option. Avoiding AI overviews, for example, or creating a document from scratch yourself, could end up being the more time-efficient option – without having to double-check sources or make AI-generated copy sound human. 

 

 

Risk 2: Not looking high-tech enough

 

Charities might also worry that they don’t look high-tech enough if they don’t use AI. But jumping in for the sake of it, using AI in an unintentional, scattered way brings huge risks, including risks around data protection, infringing copyright, and creating poor quality content.

 

Losing public trust is a significant risk. A survey by CharityTracker found the public to be split on whether charities should use AI, and that some uses are more acceptable than others. For example, fraud and scam detection and using AI for productivity tasks were broadly accepted.

 

But other uses can be divisive, for example, using AI-generated images for campaigns. Researchers from the University of East Anglia found that even when images are labelled as being AI-generated, the focus of the campaign shifts from the cause itself to debates around authenticity, trust, and the use of tech.

 

Charities need to look beyond perceived appearances, and take a strategic, risk-informed approach to using AI.

 

 

Risk 3: Getting left behind

 

Charities might worry about having to catch up more later if technology keeps changing and becoming more complex.

 

This issue of charity engagement has been highlighted by Tom Ilube, Chair of the King’s Trust, who told charities that they need to engage with AI “because if you don’t, your charity, your organisation, is going to end up in real trouble in two or three years’ time.”

 

At a sector level, being engaged now will help to make sure charities are involved in shaping AI and the emerging governance around it. While at an organisational level, charities should be aware of the risks – which will differ for each way it’s used.

 

Expertise and knowledge around AI can help charities to feel empowered and more able to make informed decisions. There is some room for growth here, however, as limited skills and a lack of technical expertise were named as key barriers to engagement by 55% of charities in the early insights of the Charity Digital Skills Report Survey 2026.

 

Before launching into using AI for a new task, charities should take time to weigh up the risks and potential benefits, and prioritise those that can bring tangible value. Careful Industries encourages organisations “to automate the easy things” as a good first step in using AI, and ideally something “where failure will be obvious”. That way you can establish early on if the tech is right for your organisation and its current level of digital skill.

 

Approaching the use of AI with consideration and knowledge will help charities to use it ethically, responsibly, and with concrete benefits for service users.