As part of our commitment to excellence and our drive to innovate, we are committed to the use of leading, safe generative AI tools to help us deliver more efficient and effective services. Indeed, Four has been using AI tools in our Mapper and Digital Performance services for some years already.

Our firm policy is that everyone at Four should make full use of AI tools to make themselves more efficient, more flexible and more creative.  We will provide regular training for all staff to aid them in doing so, and set expectations and boundaries for its use based on best practice to support this use.

We have adopted the following principles for the use of AI across Four.  

  1. We will ensure that our use of AI is transparent, explainable, ethical and complies with all relevant laws and regulations (e.g. GDPR). 
  2. We will not pass off AI generated work as our own. Use of AI for client work must always be explicitly discussed and agreed with our clients.
  3. We will disclose the use of AI in an appropriate way, maintaining the highest levels of transparency. This statement is linked to from our email signatures and available on our website.
  4. In situations where there is a risk our use of AI might be seen to be misleading, or where agreed with a client, we will actively disclose the use of AI prominently alongside the generated content. 
  5. As far as we can, we will ensure that the AI tools we are using run on models which are trained on high-quality, diverse data and are regularly updated to ensure they remain accurate and unbiased. We will do this by testing new and emerging models and prioritising those with greater transparency on their data sets. 
  6. When using a new AI tool for work purposes, we will review it in detail according to the following criteria: data protection, intellectual property, professional liability, bias, technical appropriateness, complexity and need.
  7. We wholeheartedly encourage staff to experiment with AI tools and there are no restrictions on trying out new tools and techniques when this is not related to work for clients or for Four.
  8. Our staff will be trained in the use of AI tools, including the ethical considerations and limitations of AI. This will be provided to all new joiners at their induction and a bi-annual training update for all staff via staff meetings. 
  9. We will keep up-to-date with the latest developments in AI technology and regularly review our use of AI, to ensure it remains appropriate for our services. Our AI Council, convened by the chief digital and AI officer and chaired by our chief executive, will lead on this. 
  10. AI can be used as part of internal processes and to help with generating documents and content, for example in generating first drafts of documents or note-taking and summary writing of video calls. Our staff will always be responsible for fact checking, editing and reviewing the final copy, screening for bias and for final creative decisions and executions for the overall strategy and execution. 
  11. Guidance is always available to staff and prioritised via our internal communications channels.

We regularly update a detailed policy on AI which is shared with all of our staff.  It will be updated regularly as we research, test, approve and roll out new tools and techniques:  It includes details on individual tools and is not publicly available, but we are happy to provide this to clients and prospective clients on request.