Silent Drift Audit
Your board approved an AI tool. Is it still the tool you approved?
When a board signs off an off-the-shelf AI tool, it approves a specific product with specific behaviours. Those behaviours can change over time, or differ in everyday use from what was seen during evaluation, often without warning.
I call this gap Silent Drift. If a tool has changed and nobody has noticed, it is quietly shaping your grant narratives, donor messaging and board papers without anyone having authorised it.
Why AI tools silently drift
Most of the systems charities rely on stay as they were approved. A finance system does not quietly change how it calculates totals. AI tools work differently: providers refine and adjust them in response to feedback, safety concerns and policy changes, and tools can behave differently in everyday use than they did in controlled testing.
When a board approves an off-the-shelf AI tool, it is approving a particular set of capabilities, risks and expected outputs. If those shift unnoticed, the organisation is relying on a system nobody has formally reviewed or reauthorised.
None of this means charities should stop using AI, and these tools are often genuinely useful. It does mean treating AI stewardship as something you keep doing, rather than a decision made once at procurement.
What the audit involves
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Re-test your AI tools against the scenarios used at approval, so you can see exactly what has changed.
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Refresh your risk register with a specific, owned line on AI change.
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Set up a simple way for staff to flag changes, because your team notice first.
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Report back: your trustees receive a clear account of what changed and what you have done about it.
What you receive
The audit is fixed fee, scoped to the tools you use, and runs without disrupting your team.
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A board-ready report of findings your trustees can take to their next meeting.
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A refreshed risk register entry with a named owner.
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A re-test pack for your interim checks.
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A simple template for staff to flag changes.
Past clients can return annually for a reduced-fee independent re-audit, so your oversight stays current.