Tyler Grange and AI

Either way, it’s undoubtedly one of the most important innovations of the modern age. As an innovative bunch ourselves, we’re curious to find out more. We want to use AI as a tool for good. And we want to be transparent about how we use it. Ultimately, we want to use it to help us help you. 

This year, we attended the CIEEM Summer Conference. The overarching theme was ‘human in the loop’. The event was all about embracing AI and its powerful, useful qualities across our industry. It was a fascinating opportunity to find out how AI presents opportunities for ecologists all over the world and share some learning.  Many of our peers are already using AI to great advantage. The conference gave us some insights into how we could adopt new tech to make our work more accurate and more efficient for you.  

It’s playing a role in biodiversity, for example. Although in trial stages at the moment, solar-powered systems are operating cameras, recording animal calls, and then AI is used to recognise species from the findings. Automation like this can help ecologists pinpoint risks to biodiversity that are previously unseen. As an industry, we can learn from it and find new solutions to biodiversity problems we’ve never been able to address before.(1)  

It’s discovering the answers to new challenges that piques our interest, particularly where AI is concerned. It’s what inspired us to work with Tom Penford, our external innovation coach. He’s helping us look at areas of our business that we can improve, and AI is an exciting resource that we can tap into and see where it can take us. We’re keen to find out more about how it can free up our Tribe and partners, giving them more time to support you. As Tom says, “It’s about leveraging it and using it as a tool, rather than suggesting it could replace anything.” 

It’s perhaps a worrying fact that AI is still an unregulated entity according to UK law (2). That doesn’t mean we can’t build our own guidelines that align with what we’re about and what we stand for. It’s important to set our stall out to make sure AI use is practical, safe and genuinely helpful for you.  

And that’s exactly what we’ve done.  

• Client confidentiality is crucial.  All our AI usage with Copilot is backed by Microsoft’s robust security.  

• Human review is guaranteed. Any AI-aided output is always checked by our experienced Tribe. 

• Transparency at every step. We tell our clients when AI supports work, and how. 

• Generative AI is not used for project analysis, client advice, or confidential data, unless explicitly agreed and properly controlled. 

In the interests of transparency, here’s how we’ve been putting AI to work at TG, exploring how it can support our efficiency, growth, and smarter ways of working.  

• AI notetaking helps us become more accurate and accountable, never missing important information and, importantly, reducing our need for paper-based notes!  

• We use it to create summaries of meetings or plans, so that every member of our Tribe stays on the same page. 

• We use it to improve our communication, too. Whether it’s a Landscape Planner, Ecologist or Arboriculture Consultant – everyone is kept up to date on a project in real time using dedicated AI tools.    

Rather than looking to replace our brilliant people, we’re more interested in giving them more opportunities to be brilliant. Freeing up time and mental energy to devote to your project or development has got to be a good thing.  

As well as monitoring the use of AI in our company and industry, we want to look beyond those boundaries to learn even more. In September, we attended the Responsible AI Summit. As the name suggests, it’s Europe’s leading gathering for responsible AI practitioners. (3) This year covered themes concerning governance, cybersecurity, regulation and monitoring.  

In the uncharted world of AI, we know how important it is to be part of the conversation when it comes to this incredibly powerful tool. Attending events like these is part of our commitment to learning, adapting and finding the best way to operate in line with our values.  

Keen to find out more about our innovation coach? You can read more about our work with Tom, as well as discover what else our Tribe have been up to in the latest news here.  

References:

1 https://www.ceh.ac.uk/press/ai-will-play-crucial-role-tackling-biodiversity-crisis  

2 https://post.parliament.uk/artificial-intelligence-ethics-governance-and-regulation/  

3 https://www.aidataanalytics.network/events-responsible-ai-summit