Charities Adopt AI Faster Than They Write Rules For It
Seventy-nine percent of UK charities now use artificial intelligence tools in some form, and the share using them actively or strategically has climbed to 38 percent from 25 percent in 2025, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report cited by Alliance Magazine. Yet 51 percent have no AI policy at all, rising to 62 percent among small charities against 21 percent of large ones.
The cost of that gap does not appear in any grant budget. Foundations hold donor wealth records, grantee finances and case notes on vulnerable people, and every confidential application pasted into a commercial chatbot spends a reserve of trust that nobody formally decided to spend. Only 7 percent of charities review AI risks at board level, and 6 percent have run risk assessments on specific use cases.
Source: Alliance Magazine · October 1, 2026