On 15 September 2026, we hosted a roundtable of charity audit and risk committee chairs to discuss what artificial intelligence (AI) means for charities, and the opportunities and risks it presents.
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Participants joined us from organisations of all shapes and sizes, and leaders from our Not for profit and Data, AI and Analytics teams were in the room to listen and share what we’re seeing.
AI has arrived for charities. The question is no longer whether to use it, but how to use it well, with governance and controls keeping pace.
Here, Nicholas G Burton, Alex Hunt and Harriet Taylor-Raine share the key takeaways from the session, which was held under the Chatham House Rule.
The topics discussed included:
- Cyber risk is accelerating, and what counts as good enough today may not be in 12 months. AI makes phishing emails more convincing, speeds up the search for weaknesses and lowers the skill needed to launch an attack
- How human judgement remains the control that matters most
- That chairs want practical, proportionate tools to help them ask the right questions
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Authors
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Harriet Taylor-Raine
I am a Financial Reporting Manager, specialising in the Not-for-Profit sector. I have technical experience across the housing, education and charity sectors.View Profile -
Alex Hunt
I have over 17 years' experience of providing risk and assurance based data analytics to FTSE 350 and equivalent groups.View Profile -
Paul Rao
I am the firm’s UK Head of Not for Profit and a member of the Global Not for Profit Leadership Team, representing the UK Not for Profit practice.View Profile