Commissioning, public health and leadership
Commissioners & Leaders
Introduce AI through a defined problem, proportionate governance, workforce capability, lived-experience involvement and evidence — not through product enthusiasm.
Open the governance toolkitA realistic leadership position
Use AI deliberately, safely and critically.
AI can help services structure information, develop resources, compare public guidance and reduce some routine drafting. It should not replace safeguarding, clinical judgement, accountable commissioning or the human relationship at the centre of treatment.
Leaders need clear approved uses, usable alternatives to shadow AI, proportionate review and a route for staff to report uncertainty and errors without hiding them.
Commissioner checklist
10 questions to ask about AI
Ask for evidence and named ownership, not a polished demonstration alone.
- 01
What problem is the AI intended to solve, and for whom?
- 02
What evidence supports this use in the intended population and setting?
- 03
What information does it process, where and for how long?
- 04
Who remains accountable for the work and any decision?
- 05
How is output checked, and what errors are most serious?
- 06
How are bias, accessibility and health inequalities considered?
- 07
How are service users informed and involved?
- 08
What happens when the system is wrong or unavailable?
- 09
How will impact, workload and unintended effects be evaluated?
- 10
What happens if the supplier, model, price or terms change?
Practical leadership resources
From approval to review
AI procurement questions
Evidence, data flow, security, updates, accessibility, audit and exit.
Open resource →Provider-review questions
Purpose, approved use, workforce, oversight, errors, inequalities and transparency.
Open resource →Implementation checklist
A controlled route from a defined problem to pilot, evaluation and review.
Open resource →Questions before approval
Use the green, amber and red framework before a proposed task begins.
Open resource →AI Readiness Assessment
A 24-question client-side assessment across eight organisational domains.
Open resource →Evidence Observatory
Conservative summaries of guidance and emerging evidence relevant to the sector.
Open resource →People using services
Trust cannot be added at the end.
Involve people with lived experience in defining the problem, transparency, accessibility, pilot boundaries and evaluation. Consider dignity, consent where relevant, digital exclusion, stigma and whether a non-digital route remains genuinely available.
Read the lived-experience guide →