Ipsos agreed its AI principles before it rolled out a single tool. Kerri O’Neill, Chief People Officer for Ipsos UK and Ireland, spoke to aibl in April 2026. She explained how three principles, Trust, Transparency and Truth, gave 20,000 people a shared frame for AI.
With the principles in place, Ipsos gave AI to every employee, trained everyone to question what it produces, and moved learning from individuals to teams. It has since launched a strategy built on augmentation instead of headcount cuts. Here is how it worked.
All figures as stated by Kerri O’Neill in an interview with aibl.
Ipsos’s AI principles are the Three Ts: Trust, Transparency and Truth. Trust means AI is never used to cut corners on statistically valid, evidence-based work. Transparency means being honest about what AI can and cannot do. Truth means every output must trace back to what people actually said.
Because a clear frame helped people understand, embrace and experiment with AI. O’Neill says most organisations start with the technology. Ipsos set out its philosophy before any talk of tools or prompting. Staff knew how the business wanted to work with AI from day one.
Most people when they talk about adoption, they tend to start with technology. But what’s interesting about what Ipsos has done is start with a philosophy.
Kerri O’Neill, Chief People Officer, UK and Ireland, Ipsos
Everyone gets AI at Ipsos, whatever their role or country. Every employee was trained in how a large language model works and how to prompt it. Ipsos also teaches healthy scepticism, so people check outputs, since a recent Wharton study found users trusting AI even when it was wrong.
Solo learning leaves a few fast people ahead while everyone else lags behind. O’Neill wants people to take courses alone and then discuss them together. At 20,000 people, Ipsos runs team and market-level sessions, and she suggests even half a day out together can shift a whole team.
You wouldn’t not give someone the cloud. You wouldn’t not give someone the internet. You wouldn’t not give someone electricity.
Kerri O’Neill, Chief People Officer, UK and Ireland, Ipsos
Kerri O’Neill is Chief People Officer for Ipsos UK and Ireland and its Global AI Workforce Transformation Lead. She has spent more than two decades in HR. Kerri O’Neill spoke to aibl in April 2026.
If you are about to roll out AI tools, this is the order of work to borrow. The full PDF goes deeper than this page, in Kerri O’Neill’s own words.
For CPOs, HR leaders, COOs and digital or AI leads planning an AI rollout. Five pages, about a seven-minute read.
