AI at the Bentway
The Bentway team is small enough that a verbatim quote can identify the person who wrote it, so this version summarises the free-text answers rather than quoting them, and does not publish individual responses. The range bands and counts are the full questionnaire (18 responses).
Drafting & editing writing
8 of 18 staff
Staff draft emails, copy and reports, then ask a chatbot to tighten or rephrase — and put the result back in their own voice before it ships. The most common AI use at the Bentway (8 of 18 staff).
Open canvas →Research & background gathering
8 of 18 staff
A jumping-off point: staff ask chatbots to synthesize unfamiliar subjects — materials, precedents, plant names, artist practices — then verify with their own research before relying on any of it.
Open canvas →Data & spreadsheets
8 of 18 staff
Cross-referencing contact lists, formatting spreadsheets, compiling data for decks. Staff upload real files — including whole contact databases — and check the output by eye before using it.
Open canvas →Admin & scheduling
5 of 18 staff
Formatting, lists, itineraries: the quiet uses staff call the safest, and the ones they are most comfortable naming. But an artist’s itinerary still carries someone’s personal details.
Open canvas →Summarizing documents & meetings
4 of 18 staffLong documents, meeting notes and feedback from several parties go in; a digest comes out. Useful exactly when the material is too long to check line by line — which is also the risk.
Open canvas →Brainstorming & ideas
4 of 18 staff
Throwing prompts at a chatbot to get unstuck: themes for a grant, angles for a program, material ideas for an installation. Staff are clear it never produces the final product.
Open canvas →Grants & funder reporting
3 of 18 staff
The full life cycle of grants: brainstorming themes, drafting applications, tailoring language to a funder’s priorities. A huge time saver for a small team — and the use staff are least likely to mention outside the building.
Open canvas →Translation & identification
2 of 18 staff
The on-site uses: identifying novel plants and part names from a photo, translating on the fly. AI features inside tools staff already carry — verified against other sources before anyone acts on them.
Open canvas →
All staff, all uses
18 staffEach cell is one answer choice — the deeper the colour, the more responses gave it · the pointer under the bar marks the median
What worries staff
- Losing the human voice in our communications14/18
- Accuracy of what it produces12/18
- Environmental impact12/18
- Privacy & confidentiality of what we put in11/18
- How partners, funders or the public would react9/18
- Effects on jobs or roles6/18
- No significant concerns2/18
What staff want the AI policy to answer
- Where the line is — what is OK and what isn’t, and which platforms staff may use.
- What is safe to put into these tools, and how staff are protected when they do.
- How AI use is counted in the Bentway’s environmental impact reporting.
- Where the Bentway stands on generative AI in its own visual media.
- Whether staff — or job candidates — are ever disadvantaged for choosing not to use these tools.
- Whether AI is a tool or a substitute: staff want it treated as assistance, not a starting point.
- Whether public-facing materials should be AI-free, or at least free of legible AI traces.
- Do we tell partners and funders when AI helped with a piece of work?