Adoption vs. Implications—Using AI Responsibly When Your Org Says “Not Yet”
🌟 Salon with Héc Maldonado-Reis: Adoption vs. Implications—Using AI Responsibly When Your Org Says “Not Yet” 🤖🧭
🔥 What Is This About?
AI is moving fast—but many social impact pros are stuck between curiosity and corporate caution. This salon reframes the conversation from “speed vs. sustainability” to adoption vs. implications: what you can do today (ethically and safely) even when your tools are limited, and how to make sure your results are valid, equitable, and useful.
🧠 About the Speaker
Héc Maldonado-Reis (they/them/elle) is Managing Director of Tech Impact’s Impact Strategy Team, an engineer and data scientist with deep experience spanning public health, nonprofit ops, and cross-sector collaboration. They’re known for translating AI hype into practical, people-centered use.
Managing Director, Impact Strategy Team at Tech Impact
Board Member, Make an Impact
Board Member, HGSC
Advocate for ethical, readiness-first AI in the social sector
🔍 Key Themes We’ll Explore
The Timeline & Types of AI: a short, grounding overview so everyone starts from the same page.
“Adoption vs. Implications”: how to start using AI while staying aligned with mission, equity, and evidence.
AI Under Company Restrictions: private vs. public tools, multimodal workflows, and what’s appropriate when policies feel paralyzing.
The “Six Functions” You Can Use Now: automation, ideation/iteration, content creation, narrative reframing, spotting opportunities, and more—mapped to everyday tasks.
Validity, Verification & Bias: practical ways to test outputs, avoid “decisions on sand,” and surface data gaps (e.g., queer community contexts).
Participatory & Crowdsourced Practice: engaging communities in the loop to improve models and outcomes.
🧭 Salon Format
1. Welcome & Framing (5 min) – The adoption vs. implications shift; set norms and the practical lens for the hour.
2. Catalytic Spark (10–15 min) – Héc’s mini-deck: quick AI timeline, “what counts as AI,” and the six practical functions with live examples.
3. Guided Q&A + Scenarios (25–30 min) – Your pain points drive the dialogue: restricted tools, validation steps, safe experimentation paths.
4. Synthesis & Seeds (5 min) – Capture guardrails, micro-experiments, and triads to keep learning moving after the session.
📚 Resources
🌐 Tech Impact – Nonprofit technology capacity-building
📘 Responsible AI in the Nonprofit Sector (preview shared during session) – Tech Impact
🗂️ Héc’s mini-deck: AI timeline + six functions (referenced in the salon)
✨ Final Reflection
Where are you currently blocked—policy, skills, or culture—and what is one evidence-building step you can take this week to move from not allowed to responsibly adopted?