The Futurescot AI Challenge attracted diverse applications from public sector organisations last year, each evaluated not just for technical feasibility but for ethical responsibility and trustworthiness.
But let’s take a look at what made some applications shine in their ethical approach and discuss a few practical lessons to consider this year.
Be clear about challenges
When submitting a response, weigh both the positive potential and possible risks. Try calling out any challenge you foresee, such as any issues with fairness, reliability and transparency and think about ways you would start to address them in your organisation to reduce the risk to users and yourselves.
Embrace cross department collaboration
The AI Challenge is a great opportunity to engage with other departments and explore the benefits and issues that may come from implementing AI. See it as an opportunity to start thinking about how to build the right processes to support your use case.
Keep humans in the driver’s seat
Like any powerful tool, AI works best when we understand both its strengths and its current limitations.
The most successful approach we’ve seen is keeping real people as partners in the decision-making process. This human-AI collaboration is where the magic happens – you get the speed and consistency of AI combined with human judgment, context, and accountability.
Think of AI as a way to supercharge your existing processes rather than replace them entirely.
The key is designing your human oversight thoughtfully from the start. Consider who in your organisation has the expertise to review AI outputs, how you’ll handle edge cases, and what processes you’ll put in place to maintain quality. This isn’t about limiting AI’s potential – it’s about unlocking it safely and sustainably.
You can gradually increase AI’s role as you build confidence and capability, starting with human oversight and potentially moving toward greater automation over time.
Support available
AI Clinics
If you want to discuss any aspect of your application, please contact ai@stormid.com to arrange a meeting.
AI public sector guidelines;
Short listed organisations support.
The three shortlisted applications will receive in depth support around responsible AI implementation where StormID will through the applications in more detail and offer advice on how to help take your submission response to the next level for the final submission and round of judging.