AI for nonprofits starts with people, according to C40 Cities. Christina Lewis, its Chief People and Operations Officer, told aiblLIVE London 2026 how the climate organisation is bringing AI inside a workforce that met it with fear and suspicion.
C40 uses AI in its work with cities. Internally, it is at the start. Lewis treats adoption as people-led change, answers each objection directly and begins with real frustrations.
All figures as stated on stage by Christina Lewis.
Fear, suspicion and a sense that AI clashes with their values. At C40, staff question the tool, the ethics, the risk of misuse and their job security. Funding pressure in the sector makes the job fears real. Some also ask how internal AI use fits with C40’s work on sustainable data centres.
It is a change in the way of working. It is a change management piece. It’s not simply just a tech piece.
Christina Lewis, Chief People and Operations Officer, C40 Cities
By making adoption a people-led initiative that fits its people-first value. Lewis focuses on the uniquely human skills people enjoy and do best, and uses AI to free time for them. She notes that C40 already works with Uber and Amazon, and takes the same working-with approach to AI.
Lewis’s vision is to scale C40’s impact with the same skills and headcount. She reminds staff that AI has no agency, so managers make any replacement decisions. The work is about repurposing people: AI helped her build an organisation chart quickly, but it could not write a board paper she would present.
With the glitches and clunks that drive teams crazy. Lewis says AI treated as a nice-to-have never gets the rigour it needs. She built HR Snack for her busy global HR team, giving two minutes of daily learning with a quiz. Her people and operations teams also run drop-in clinics.
I think AI should be like Botox. It shouldn’t be obvious that you’re using it.
Christina Lewis, Chief People and Operations Officer, C40 Cities
Christina Lewis is Chief People and Operations Officer at C40 Cities, overseeing its people, global operations and technology functions. She spoke on the Workforce track at aiblLIVE London on 20 October 2026.
If your staff are wary of AI, this is a practical way to answer them. The full PDF goes deeper than this page, in the speaker’s own words.
For chief people officers, COOs, HR leaders and not-for-profit leadership teams. Five pages, about a seven-minute read.
