"This is a thoughtful, clear, inspiring roadmap for organizations navigating AI's promise and pitfalls. A valuable resource for mission oriented practitioners." - Paige Fullman, Host of "Current Affairs Unfiltered"
Are you caught in an AI tug-of-war?
Nonprofits, government agencies, and social impact companies are feeling tension over Artificial Intelligence. On one side, enthusiasts pull toward rapid adoption, eager to harness productivity gains to do more good. On the other, skeptics and conscientious objectors pull back, fearing that the technology will undermine values central to their mission.
When they see this tug of war in their teams, many leaders drop the rope, resulting either in a total ban that no one follows or a policy-free free-for-all that leaves the organization vulnerable to reputational, legal, and ethical risks.
In Amplify Good Work, Dr. Karen Boyd offers a judgment-free, practical guide to ending the tug-of-war. Drawing on over a decade of experience in mission-driven sectors and AI ethics research, Dr. Boyd provides a framework to move beyond "yes or no" and toward confident, values-aligned judgment.
Inside this book, you'll discover:
- A Mission-First Strategy: Why values-centered AI policy and practices are critical to your work how to build one that protects your mission and community trust.
- The Values Framework: Deep dives into how AI impacts your mission-critical values, including privacy, sustainability, equity, social connection, and much more, and how to mitigate those risks.
- Human vs. AI Strengths: What can AI do, and what are we better at? You'll learn how to identify and defend human-only tasks and how to use AI as a scaffold while keeping human control of quality.
- Practical Implementation: A step-by-step playbook for assessing readiness, prioritizing use cases, and managing the human change that AI brings to a team.
Unlike generic AI guides or sales pitches from tech companies, Amplify Good Work speaks directly to the challenges facing mission-driven organizations. When your work depends on community trust and you serve people with limited recourse if things go wrong, the stakes of AI implementation are genuinely high. If AI gets it wrong, your community member doesn't get the wrong pair of socks, they could be losing out on housing, food, or job placement assistance.
Whether you are an enthusiast looking for new ideas, a skeptic looking for support, or a leader who needs to manage a team with both, this book gives you the tools to amplify your effort without compromising your values.
Stop pulling against each other and start moving forward together. Learn how to use AI to amplify the good work you were born to do
Boyd, Karen: - Karen Boyd is the Director of Research at the Policy & Innovation Center, where she helps mission-driven teams build safe and effective AI skills, align AI strategy with their mission, and support human flourishing in the future of work. Her scholarship on ethical AI and the future of work has been cited in more than 400 academic papers, and her upcoming book Amplify Good Work translates those insights into practical, values-aligned guidance for practitioners. Karen holds an MBA from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD from the University of Maryland's School of Information.
