Plain-English AI explanations for public bodies

Accessible explanations of how AI contributes to organisational processes and affects people. Clarify what information it uses, who exercises control and what human review involves, helping public bodies frame enquiries, explain findings and identify the evidence needed to examine disputed outcomes.

Public sector professionals reviewing an AI-assisted process, human oversight and decision-making
On this page
  • Making complex arrangements understandable
  • Supporting scrutiny and meaningful explanations
  • Explaining benefits and their conditions
A person challenging a decision needs an explanation they can understand. The organisation responding needs to account for how the decision was reached. Where AI contributed, both needs can be frustrated by technical language, incomplete records or an unclear division of responsibility.

Regulators, ombudsmen and public bodies need to establish the role AI played and communicate why that role matters. An apparently simple process may involve software providers, connected information sources, automated recommendations and several stages of human involvement.

Making complex arrangements understandable

I write explanations that connect those arrangements with the experience of the organisation and the affected person. They describe what AI contributed, what information it could use and where people had an opportunity to check, intervene or correct.

This makes distinctions such as “human oversight” more concrete. A person who can inspect the supporting information and change a result has a different role from someone who sees only a suggested answer or reviews a complaint afterwards.

Supporting scrutiny and meaningful explanations

Useful scrutiny requires questions that an organisation can answer with evidence. Saying that a process is supervised does not explain what the supervisor reviewed. Saying that a feature can be disabled does not establish who could disable it or what would happen to an action already completed.

My explainers make the significance of those questions accessible. They can support guidance for organisations, explanations of complaint processes and communication about information access, responsibility and correction.

Explaining benefits and their conditions

Quicker responses and easier access to records can benefit public bodies and the people who deal with them. Explaining those benefits also means explaining the conditions needed to preserve accuracy, meaningful review and an effective route to challenge.

Clear writing gives readers a way to understand the process, recognise what remains uncertain and see what further explanation is required.

Contact me about the AI subject your organisation needs to make understandable.