Our latest AI in Professional Services Community meeting brought together institutions across the higher and further education sectors to share progress, practical approaches and emerging questions around integrating AI into day-to-day operations. The conversation reflected a clear shift: AI is no longer an abstract future trend, but an active area of development embedded in training, governance, and service design across professional services teams.
Our November session’s discussion points were:
Building Meaningful Training Pathways
A key theme was the rise of tiered AI training frameworks tailored to different confidence and experience levels. Many institutions are structuring staff development into stages such as novice, explorer and practitioner, ensuring that learning pathways feel accessible and relevant. This layered approach acknowledges varying digital capabilities and helps staff adopt AI tools responsibly and effectively.
Data Awareness and GDPR at the Core
Across the community, institutions stressed the importance of helping staff understand what data can and cannot be entered into AI systems. Training is increasingly focused on data sensitivity, safeguarding, and GDPR compliance, with teams building clear guidance to prevent accidental misuse. This emphasis ensures that innovation continues with compromising data protection obligations.
Evolving Governance for Responsible AI
Rather than creating standalone AI policies, institutions are embedding AI considerations into existing frameworks such as plagiarism, data retention, and information governance policies. This integrated approach supports consistency and helps ensure that AI usage aligns with established organisational expectations around risk, ethics, and accountability.
Practical AI Applications in Professional Services
Participants shared a wide range of live use cases, from toolkits that help teams experiment with AI safely to automated processes for summarising data, reporting, and document generation. AI is also accelerating repetitive work – such as email summarisation and spreadsheet interpretation – freeing staff to focus on higher-value tasks. These examples demonstrate how AI is quietly reshaping everyday administrative workflows.
Chatbots and Internal Process Support
Interest in AI-driven chatbots continues to grow, with institutions exploring their potential for tasks like policy navigation, FAQs, and first-line IT support. Some teams are building in-house prototypes, while others are evaluating external solutions to scale more quickly. Early experiments show promising efficiency gains, though user experience design and ongoing governance remain important considerations.
AI in Recruitment: Proceeding with Care
Ethical concerns around AI-driven recruitment processes remain prominent. Participants expressed caution about using generative AI for shortlisting, interviews, or decision support, noting current limitations in transparency and fairness. The community agreed that any adoption in this area must be carefully governed and evidence based.
Collaboration and Shared Resources
A strong spirit of collaboration continues to define the Jisc community. Participants reaffirmed the value of sharing toolkits, training materials, governance models, and practical examples to accelerate collective learning. This open exchange helps institutions move faster, avoid duplication, and build on each other’s progress.
Accessibility and Inclusivity as Foundations
Discussions in this session also highlighted the need to ensure AI supports, not hinders, accessibility and inclusivity. Institutions are planning dedicated workshops to explore how AI tools can enhance inclusive practice across both professional services and teaching, with particular focus on equal access and user-friendly design.
Looking Ahead
As AI adoption accelerates across professional services, our communities continue to play a vital role in supporting safe, thoughtful, and collaborate development. Going forward, we hope the community continues sharing practical resources, deepening governance approaches, and ensuring staff across all roles feel confident navigating AI-enhanced workflows. We look forward to building on this collaborative environment in upcoming sessions.
Our next meeting will be on 17th December 2025, we hope to see many of you there for our last session before the Christmas break.
Useful Links
Jisc Advice blog on AI tools in Professional Services – AI Tools: Professional Services – Artificial intelligence
Jisc blog on AI and Governance – Regulating the Future: AI and Governance – Artificial intelligence
Jisc blog on Chatbots in HE and FE – Implementing chatbots in Colleges and Universities: A Practical Guide based on learnings from the Jisc LearnWise Pilot – Artificial intelligence
Windsor Forest College’s chatbot ‘Winnie’ – A bot named Winnie – Jisc
Scottish Tertiary Education statement on the use of GenAI – SCAITEN
University of Liverpool’s guidance on GenAI – Generative Artificial Intelligence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment – Centre for Innovation in Education – University of Liverpool
Find out more by visiting our Artificial Intelligence page to explore publications and resources, learn more about our communities and sign up for our AI Literacy training.
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Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk
2 replies on “AI in Professional Services Community: November Session Review”
Hi there
How do I register to join this community meet up?
Hi Lucy, you need to join our AI in Professional Services JiscMail list. Details can be found here along with our other communities.