Artificial intelligence (AI) transparency statement 

How we intend to use AI

ACE Solutions is a social enterprise in the sustainability industry. We help Australian businesses, organisations, cooperatives and associations evaluate, improve and communicate their environmental engagement and reduce their carbon footprint. We use artificial intelligence (AI) in a safe and responsible way because we believe it helps us deliver these outcomes more effectively and efficiently, for our members and for the wider community.

In considering AI, we have adopted the following definition: an AI system is a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.

AI is central to how we scale our services, but it is not a substitute for human responsibility. Our people remain accountable for oversight of the tasks AI supports and for the decisions we make. When engaging with or using AI, we meet our commitments to our members, their customers, our partners, our employees and regulators, including with respect to security, privacy, confidentiality, ethics and our other legal obligations. We make risk-based decisions about where and how AI is used.

We seek opportunities to use AI to:

• engage with members and their customers at scale across multiple channels while keeping the experience helpful and accurate

• build expertise within the organisation to understand the impacts of AI across our work

• identify waste, inefficiency and emissions-reduction opportunities more quickly and accurately

• enhance our ability to undertake analysis and generate sustainability insights and reporting

• improve productivity, including by reducing manual processes, so more of our effort goes to delivering measurable environmental and financial returns.

How we are using AI

Our AI usage patterns are:

Autonomous member and customer engagement

ACE Solutions operates an Autonomous LLM (large language model) suite that communicates directly with members and their customers across several channels:

• Autonomous Email — generating and responding to email correspondence.

• Autonomous Outbound Calls — placing voice calls to share information and follow up with contacts.

• Autonomous Inbound Calls — answering and handling incoming voice calls.

• Autonomous SMS — sending and responding to text messages.

• AI Dynamic Knowledge Base — drawing on a continuously updated knowledge base so that responses across these channels are consistent and current.

These tools are designed to provide timely, accurate and helpful communication. They operate within defined parameters, with human oversight and the ability to escalate to a member of our team.

Analytics for insights

We use AI to produce insights from structured and unstructured material, including:

• reviewing and interrogating large and complex sets of documents or datasets, such as energy and waste data

• enhancing pattern detection to identify inefficiencies, savings and emissions-reduction opportunities

• supporting sustainability reporting and tracking for our members.

Workplace productivity

We use AI to improve productivity for our staff, including:

• summarising documents, emails and other content

• transcribing meetings and preparing notes

• creating training and member-facing material

• proactively seeking and retrieving information for analysis

• automating routine tasks

• editing, refining and generating drafts of documents, except those subject to formal review or sign-off.

We continue to explore a range of AI-driven innovations to improve our efficiency and effectiveness.

Areas of AI application

Our AI applications focus on the following areas:

• Member and customer engagement — our Autonomous LLM suite (email, inbound and outbound calls, SMS, and the AI dynamic knowledge base) handles communication and information requests across channels, with human oversight.

• Sustainability analytics and reporting — processing complex datasets to evaluate environmental performance, predict outcomes, identify savings and support reporting and tracking for members.

• Corporate and enabling — supporting internal functions by automating processes, optimising resource allocation and improving operational efficiency.

Public interaction and impact

Unlike organisations that confine AI to internal use, ACE Solutions does use AI in direct interactions with the public and our members through our Autonomous LLM suite. People may interact with our AI when they receive or respond to our emails, SMS messages, or inbound and outbound phone calls, or when they query information drawn from our AI dynamic knowledge base.

We are committed to handling these interactions responsibly. In practice this means:

• being transparent that a person is interacting with an automated AI system, and providing a clear path to reach a member of our team where appropriate

• keeping our people responsible for oversight, escalation and final decision making

• designing our systems to give accurate, relevant and respectful responses, and monitoring them for quality

• considering the potential impact of every AI-supported interaction on members, their customers and the community

• respecting the communication preferences and consent of the people we contact.

We will update this transparency statement if we materially change how AI is used in our interactions with the public or our members, or if we add new channels.

Complying with legislation and regulation

Because our AI communicates directly with the public, we take particular care to operate within the law. Our AI systems support and assist our staff and members; they operate within defined parameters and under human oversight, rather than making consequential decisions on their own.

Our AI use is designed to comply with all relevant Australian legislation and regulation, and we apply strong safeguards to protect personal information. Areas of particular relevance to our autonomous communication channels include:

• Privacy — handling personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. [Confirm alignment with your privacy policy.]

• Electronic messaging — sending commercial emails and SMS consistent with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), including consent, identification and unsubscribe requirements.

• Telemarketing and calls — making outbound calls consistent with the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) and applicable telemarketing standards.

• Consumer protection — ensuring our communications are not misleading or deceptive, consistent with the Australian Consumer Law.

• Responsible AI — having regard to Australia's AI Ethics Principles and the Voluntary AI Safety Standard. [Confirm which frameworks ACE Solutions has formally adopted.]

Monitoring AI systems

We have taken the following steps to govern and monitor our AI systems:

• designating accountability for AI to [role — e.g. ACE Solutions' Director / responsible AI officer]

• maintaining an internal AI policy with a review and approval pathway for AI use, supported by an AI register

• establishing internal oversight of AI adoption and the performance of our autonomous channels

• considering the potential risks of AI as part of our risk management processes, including risks specific to public-facing communication

• providing training for relevant staff on the responsible use of AI in our work

• publishing this transparency statement.

[Governing body — e.g. the ACE Solutions Board / leadership team] has ultimate oversight of AI adoption across the organisation.

Review of this statement

This statement was published in [month and year]. It will be reviewed and updated:

• at least once a year

• when a significant change is made to our approach to AI

• when we become aware of any new factor that materially impacts the accuracy of this statement.

Contact

For questions about this statement or for further information on our use of AI, please contact ACE Solutions at [contact email — e.g. info@acesolutions.com.au] or via the contact options on our website, www.acesolutions.com.au.