Responsible AI at the British Red Cross starts with people and trust, before any tool. Simon Hodgkinson, its AI Product Owner, told the story at aiblLIVE London 2026. It taught staff about AI first, then learned from a pilot that lost its users.
A frontline AI case-note tool had strong backing, yet usage fell from about week six. The dashboards could not say why. Asking staff could, and the answer changed how the Red Cross approaches adoption.
All figures as stated on stage by Simon Hodgkinson.
It taught people about AI first and let the use cases come to it. Instead of asking teams to list use cases, which Hodgkinson calls next to impossible, it ran a mass education programme for staff and volunteers. Within six months, people who knew their own jobs best were bringing him ideas.
Because they did not trust it to get a person’s story right. One worker said that if the tool got a story wrong, it was on her. She read and rewrote everything, which took longer than doing it herself, so she stopped. Usage dashboards had shown the drop but not the reason.
Staff and volunteers don’t trust us just because we bought some software.
Simon Hodgkinson, AI Product Owner, British Red Cross
Ask whether people would reach for the tool on a bad day, with nobody watching. Licences show who can use it and dashboards show how much. Hodgkinson’s test is a direct question on the floor: if we turned it off tomorrow, what would you miss? Use that is only seen when people are watched is compliance.
Short, plain rules and a named human. Hodgkinson advises against opening with a 12-page framework. Say what is never allowed, in words everyone understands and supports. Then give people an accountable, approachable person to go to when something goes wrong, because that is a leadership task.
90% adoption with no changes is not as good as 30% who wouldn’t give it back.
Simon Hodgkinson, AI Product Owner, British Red Cross
Simon Hodgkinson is AI Product Owner at the British Red Cross, where he has worked for about five years and leads its work on AI. He has trained about 2,000 people in AI face to face. He spoke on the Workforce track at aiblLIVE London on 20 October 2026.
If your AI tools are switched on but people quietly avoid them, this is the approach to borrow. The full PDF goes deeper than this page, in Hodgkinson’s own words.
For HR and people leaders, CIOs, transformation leads and charity leaders rolling out AI to staff. Six pages, about an eight-minute read.
