This is the third in our series examining the ideas at the heart of Blueprint’s Framework for using AI. In previous blogs, we’ve argued that organisations must look beyond AI’s technical capabilities and consider the kind of future they are helping to create through its deployment. This week, we focus on one of the framework’s core concepts: the Common Good.

A timely warning

Earlier this month, Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab published We Must Act Now: A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy, an open letter now signed by thousands of economists, AI researchers, business leaders and policymakers. Its central argument is straightforward: AI could reshape economies and labour markets on a scale comparable to previous industrial revolutions, but at a much faster pace. As a result, the choices being made today about how AI is deployed will have profound implications for how opportunity, value and prosperity are distributed in the future.

Whatever one’s view of the initiative, it helps bring an important question back to the centre of the conversation: how can AI’s growing capabilities be directed towards outcomes that benefit society as a whole?

Looking beyond efficiency

Much of today’s AI conversation focuses on productivity, efficiency and competitive advantage. Organisations are exploring how AI can automate tasks, streamline processes and improve decision-making. These are legitimate objectives, but they can narrow the discussion to what AI can do rather than what it should be used for.

Recent research from the Office for National Statistics illustrates this trend. UK organisations are currently more than three times as likely to be using AI to improve efficiency than to develop new products, services or sources of growth.

That emphasis on efficiency is understandable, but it also raises a deeper question. If AI creates significant new value, where will that value ultimately flow? Will gains be reinvested in people, capability-building and innovation? Or will they be realised primarily as cost savings?

The common good

The concept of the common good encourages organisations to broaden the frame. It asks leaders to consider not only the value AI creates for their organisation, but how its benefits can contribute to wider human and societal flourishing.

Applied to AI, this raises practical questions around who benefits from the productivity gains AI creates? Does AI help people develop new skills and capabilities, or diminish opportunities for growth and progression? Are AI-enabled decisions transparent and accountable? Do gains in efficiency come at the expense of human dignity, autonomy or long-term resilience?

These questions are not in opposition to commercial success. Rather, they reflect a recognition that long-term prosperity depends on healthy communities, trusted institutions and opportunities that are broadly shared.

The We Must Act Now initiative is ultimately a call to think more carefully about the future we are building. The common good offers a valuable lens through which to approach those choices. It encourages leaders to ask not only whether AI makes their organisation more efficient, but whether it helps create the conditions in which people, communities and society can thrive.

 

For more see our Framework for human centred AI – a guide for business 

The other blogs in our series can be read here