M.A.I. Consulting
AI adoption for mission-driven and international organisations

From unguided use of AI to a trained, documented organisation.

Many organisations now see staff using AI tools without agreed guidance, a wide choice of training with no clear basis for selecting it, and funder questionnaires that ask about AI governance. We assess where you stand, set the rules, train each department on its own work, and leave you the evidence a board, funder or auditor expects.

9
AI certifications: seven from Anthropic, two from the United Nations College with Microsoft
10 × 60
Dimensions and scored questions in our own readiness instrument, free to use on this site
6
Standards the instrument maps to, including ISO/IEC 42001 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework
Geneva
Based where the international sector is. Delivery in English, French or Arabic. Clients include the AI for Good Foundation and BlackBird Training Center
Who this is for

Mission-driven and international organisations of up to 500 staff: NGOs, foundations, UN agencies and public institutions, typically without an in-house AI function and with beneficiary, donor or personal data in their daily work. We speak first with the executive director or the data protection officer.

Smaller teams and other cases

Individuals and organisation representatives are served through courses for fewer than ten participants, in person or online, priced per person. Private-sector work is taken on referral. We build no AI systems. Foundations funding a portfolio of grantees have their own page.

The situation, with sources

Adoption across the sector is already high. The method around it is not.

Every figure below links to the organisation that published it. Where we could not verify a number against its source, it is not on this site.

Use is routine and individual

In a benchmark study of 346 nonprofits, 92% report using AI, 81% use it individually without shared workflows, and only 7% report major improvements in organisational capability. source

Few staff have a working grasp of it

Surveying 215 foundations and 451 nonprofits in April 2025, the Center for Effective Philanthropy reports that almost two-thirds say none or just a few of their staff have a solid understanding of AI and its applications. source

The barrier named is training

Among UK charities, 76% now use AI tools, up from 61% a year earlier. Small charities name limited digital skills (48%) and lack of training (44%) as their biggest barriers to adopting them. source

And the gain, where it has been measured, is fast. In a randomised experiment with 453 professionals, writing tasks took 40% less time at 18% higher rated quality source. Across 5,179 support agents, output rose 14%, and 34% for the least experienced staff source. Among 758 consultants, work was 25% faster with 12.2% more tasks completed source. The same consulting study found the reverse on a task chosen to sit outside what the tool does well: 19 percentage points worse than using no AI at all source. Knowing which tasks to hand over is the whole difference, and it takes one session to teach.
Five services

Each service addresses a situation you will recognise and ends with a result you can present.

Services can be bought singly or as a package. Fixed price and fixed scope, agreed before work begins. The method and the price for each are on the services page.

01 2–3 weeks

AI Readiness Assessment

SituationThe board or a funder has asked where the organisation stands on AI, and no measured answer exists.

ResultA scored position across ten dimensions, an inventory of the tools in use and a ranked 90-day plan. You answer with a figure and a course of action.

How we get there, and the price →
02 3–4 weeks

AI Use Policy

SituationStaff use AI on donor reports and proposals without agreed rules, or under a prohibition that has moved the use out of view.

ResultA policy the board approves and staff follow because it states what is permitted, with which data, on which tools. The funder's question has a documented answer.

How we get there, and the price →
03 2–6 weeks

Team AI Training

SituationStaff have completed general AI courses and still ask what is appropriate in their own role.

ResultEach department leaves with a working playbook built on its own tasks and documents, works within the rules, and you hold the attendance record.

How we get there, and the price →
04 3–12 months

Fluency Support

SituationSix months after training, the tools have changed, the champions have moved on and no one has re-measured.

ResultThe capability is maintained: monthly office hours, updated playbooks, coached champions and a re-score that shows the board what has moved.

How we get there, and the price →
05 2–6 weeks

Custom Agents, Skills & Tools

SituationThe same task is performed by hand each week, differently by each person, with results that depend on who performed it.

ResultThe repetitive part is configured once on the platform you already pay for, tested on your documents, cleared against your policy, and performed consistently.

How we get there, and the price →
The method

One framework underpins every service.

Delegation, Description, Discernment and Diligence: the AI Fluency framework published by Anthropic with Rick Dakan and Joseph Feller. The framework is public, so the method can be verified against it.

Delegation

What to hand to AI, what to keep human, and who decides.

Description

How to ask, with your organisation's context already in the request.

Discernment

How to check an output before anyone relies on it.

Diligence

What to log, what to disclose, and who owns the result.

They are the four axes of your assessment score, the four sections of every team's playbook, the four clause groups of your policy and the four modules of every session. The diagnosis, the training and the rules use one vocabulary, so a gap found in the assessment maps directly onto a clause and a lab.

Free · 12 minutes

The AI Readiness Check

Twenty-eight questions across the four competencies. You receive a score, a breakdown by competency, and a ranked list of what to address first. No call is needed and you keep the report. The extended assessment, sixty questions across ten dimensions, is also free.

Take the check

The deliverable

See what a department receives

A playbook for each department: five tasks to hand over, three never to, the prompt patterns that work on their files, the checks before anything leaves the building, and what has to be logged.

Open a sample playbook

Individuals and representatives

Courses for fewer than ten participants

In person or online, built on the participants' own tasks, ending with a playbook for their work and an attendance record. In-person courses include accommodation and hospitality arrangements. Priced per person.

See the per-person price

Backing others?

Investors, funders and incubators: your portfolio is already using AI.

Only about 10% of foundations report supporting grantees on AI implementation, and almost two-thirds of foundations and nonprofits say none or just a few of their staff have a solid understanding of AI. source We run the assessment across a cohort, set the rules, train the teams, and give you one report on where the portfolio stands.

Portfolio programmes
Why us

What distinguishes this practice.

Vendor-independent

We sell no licences and take no partner commissions. If the free tier of a tool is enough for your team, we say so.

A published framework

We work from the 4D AI Fluency framework and map the diagnostic to recognised standards. Both are public, so the method can be audited before you sign.

A playbook for every team

Each team leaves with a working reference built from its own tasks and cleared against your policy. Staff use it because it is theirs and it answers the question in front of them.

The sector's own vocabulary

Donor reporting, beneficiary data, safeguarding, disclosure to funders, DPIA. The material is written for this sector from the first draft.

Whoever scopes it, delivers it

There is no pitch team and no handover to a junior after signature. How engagements run.

Documentation you can hand over

The assessment, the policy and the attendance record form the file a donor or a board asks to see. It is documentation, not certification, and we do not offer compliance or legal services. See how the alternatives compare.

A thirty-minute conversation establishes which service fits, or whether none is needed yet.

Book it, or run the estimator first and bring the range with you.