Fighting for rights, not revenue - Ctrl Alt Lead podcast

‘We're always remembering that the money is not our own’ - Paul Smith, Amnesty International

With workers in warzones, activists facing political pressure, and local teams who guard their autonomy, Amnesty International’s Paul Smith faces a challenge like no other CIO.

In the latest episode of Ctrl Alt Lead, Amnesty International’s CIO Paul Smith offers a rare window into what it means to run IT at a nonprofit operating on the front lines of human rights.

With teams working in war zones and under political pressure, Paul’s role is a world away from corporate CIO life, though the complexity, scale and urgency are just as demanding.

“Given that we're a purpose-based organisation, we're always remembering that the money [we spend] is not our own. That's always front and centre. It's money that's been given to the organisation, and we want to channel the maximum amount to the front lines. So that always has to be front of mind. We always need to make sure we get maximum value for every penny spent.”

That means prioritising privacy, resilience and the ethical rollout of technology in regions where security threats are not hypothetical.

In this episode, Tom and Paul explore how Amnesty balances digital innovation with principle-led governance - including early experiments with the metaverse, blockchain and, now, generative AI.

Although modern tools like AI, blockchain and even the metaverse may be thought to be out of the reach of non-profits like Amnesty, Paul is passionate about them and has a plan in place for their use. Generative AI, in particular, presents an opportunity to re-imagine how people can access and interrogate Amnesty’s massive archive of human rights information, which stretches back more than 60 years.

"Rather than say ‘I'm looking for this keyword, this date range, this kind of document, this sort of subject,’ in a very old, traditional search manner, we can ask a question and have the information brought to us in context for the question.

“The ability to not only do that, but to do it in your own language as well - that's a massive shift in accessibility and retrievability of our information.”

The episode also touches on Amnesty International’s federated structure. Each of its branches, in over 150 countries, is its own subsidiary, presenting a massive challenge in terms of silos, tooling and data governance.

Paul goes into detail about how the organisation is addressing this using a set of common services and platforms – while respecting local autonomy.

From safeguarding whistleblowers to creating digital equity for Amnesty’s diverse workforce, this episode highlights how IT leaders in the nonprofit space have to navigate complexity with care, creativity and conviction.

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