Concern 925 · Working draft · editorial review in progress
Stakeholder engagement on AI
Stakeholder engagement is inadequate when people affected by an AI system have little influence over the questions, design or decisions that shape its use.
Understanding the concern
Customers, workers and communities may notice effects that developers miss. They may also face barriers to participation, such as time, language or fear of consequences. An invitation to comment does not necessarily give people a meaningful opportunity to change an outcome.
OHCHR's recommendations emphasize responsible development and engagement with affected interests. Think of redesigning a bus route without hearing from the people who depend on it. Useful engagement begins early, explains real choices and reports how input influenced decisions. It should include people who bear risks even if they are not paying customers or direct users of the system.
An example
An organization asks for feedback after choosing an AI service but leaves no practical option to change the planned use.
Illustrative unless identified as a documented case.
Words in plain English
- AI
- Software that learns patterns from examples or uses rules to perform tasks such as recognizing images or generating text. It can make mistakes and does not understand every situation as a person would.
Evidence and its limits
The source provides human-rights recommendations. Consultation is not automatically consent, and holding a meeting does not establish that participants' concerns were addressed.
OHCHR B-Tech Project · Human rights recommendations
Advancing Responsible Development and Deployment of Generative AI ↗ (opens in a new tab)Recommendations for companies, investors and states under the UN Guiding Principles. Engagement is part of responsible practice, not automatic community consent.
Broader frameworks and background
These resources provide context. They do not establish every claim in this concern.
- NIST AI RMF (opens in a new tab)
framework
- ISO/IEC 42001 (opens in a new tab)
standard
A question to discuss
Who is affected but missing from this discussion, and what decisions can their input still influence?
Keep track of different views, what needs checking, and any next step in your own discussion notes.
Open discussion notes →Principles for the conversation
Before you finish · reflect together
Virtues and principles to consider
Virtues are qualities we practice in how we treat people and make choices. They are not scores for judging someone. Use these ideas to explore what a thoughtful response could look like.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness means giving people good reasons to rely on you. It grows when promises, actions, and evidence line up. With AI, a friendly voice or a famous brand is not enough: people need to know what was checked and what could still go wrong.
In practice, keep promises small enough to test, record mistakes, and tell people when the tool's limits affect them. If a service promises human review, make sure a person really has time and authority to review it.
Ask together: What would give the people affected a sound reason to trust this use?
Stewardship
Stewardship means caring for resources and systems that others depend on, including people who will use them later. It looks beyond the benefit of a quick launch.
Plan for maintenance, energy use, data protection, and eventual shutdown. Ask who will look after the tool when the original team moves on and how future users can avoid inheriting hidden costs.
Ask together: What are we responsible for caring for over time?
Prudence
Prudence means using careful judgment before and during action. It balances worthwhile opportunities with the need to avoid harm that could have been anticipated.
Start with a limited trial, set stopping points, and prefer choices that can be undone when uncertainty is high. Review what happens rather than assuming the original plan remains sound.
Ask together: What is a careful next step, and when should we stop or change course?
Editorial ratings
These are editorial judgments from the register, not measured probabilities or predictions about your situation.
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