Our Responsible AI Usage Policy

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, Aten is committed to using AI in a responsible, intentional, and human-centered way. We adopt AI tools where they meaningfully enhance the quality of our work, support professional expertise, and improve team efficiency – while ensuring that human judgement, accountability, and creativity remain central.

AI capabilities are sometimes intentionally implemented within our workflows, while in other cases they are embedded within the tools we already use (for example, Slack, Zoom, Notion, and Google all include AI-powered features). We treat both scenarios with the same level of care, oversight, and responsibility.

We currently utilize AI in the following ways:

• GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code
• Claude Code
• ChatGPT
• Summarizing call notes

Aten’s Core AI Principles

We approach AI as an assistive technology, not an autonomous decision-maker. Across all teams and use cases, we adhere to the following principles:

• Human creativity, expertise, and judgment remain essential to all work.
• AI is used to augment professionals, not replace accountability or oversight.
• Humans remain responsible for all decisions, outputs, and actions, including those assisted by AI.
• AI is used intentionally, with awareness of its limitations, risks, and potential biases.
• We aim to use AI in ways that respect privacy, promote inclusivity, and avoid harm.

Developer Usage

The most significant benefits of AI come from its integration directly into development environments, where it can support engineers with context-aware suggestions.

When AI has access to relevant project files, it can assist with tasks such as generating boilerplate code (e.g., Drush commands, controllers, service classes) and accelerating routine development work. In some cases, agent-based workflows may be used to help structure or draft code.

However:

• AI-generated code is always considered assistive, not authoritative.
• All code, whether AI-assisted or manually written, must comply with project coding standards.
• Every change must be reviewed and approved by a human before being merged.
• No code is ever committed automatically without human oversight.

UX Usage

At Aten, we prioritize design excellence and the expertise of our designers and clients. Design is a human-led discipline grounded in collaboration, creativity, and intentional decision-making.

We do not use AI to generate:

• Wireframes
• Design comps
• Components or design systems
• Interaction models or prototypes
• Final production-ready visuals or images

We have also disabled Figma’s file ingestion into AI training features where possible.

Occasionally, AI tools such as ChatGPT may be used in a limited and non-creative capacity such generating placeholder (“lorem ipsum”) content to support early-stage design layouts.

Our intent is to ensure AI does not replace design thinking, but may lightly support production efficiency where it does not influence creative direction.

Strategy and Analysis Usage

Our strategy teams may use AI tools as assistive systems for organizing and interpreting information.

This may include:

• Summarizing de-identified survey responses
• Identifying themes or trends in user feedback
• Structuring large qualitative or quantitative datasets to support human analysis

AI is not used to independently conduct research or make strategic conclusions. All analysis, interpretation, and decisions remain the responsibility of human team members, who validate and contextualize AI-assisted outputs.

Other Usage

AI tools may also be used to support non-technical work, including:

• Refining written communication (emails, documentation, reports)
• Improving clarity, tone, and structure of content
• Supporting SEO research and editorial refinement for Aten content (e.g., blog and webinar materials)

In all cases, AI is used as a drafting and refinement assistant. Final review, editorial control, and accountability remain with human team members.

Client Choice & Embedded AI Features

Clients may request that Aten does not use AI in the delivery of their project work (for example, no AI-assisted drafting, summarization, analysis, or content generation). When such requests are made:

• We document the requirement and align on practical boundaries, including scope, cost, and delivery implications.
• We ensure teams follow the agreed-upon constraints.

In addition, some third-party tools, platforms, and services we use may include built-in AI features that are not fully controllable by Aten. When we are aware of such functionality:

• We will disclose it where relevant.
• We will support configuration or limitation of those features where feasible.
• We will ensure clients understand the scope of responsibility between Aten-managed AI use and third-party system behavior.

Ultimately, clients remain responsible for their own governance of any AI-enabled systems they choose to operate or deploy.

Privacy, Security, and Impact Considerations

We commit to using AI in a way that protects sensitive information, upholds security standards, and considers the broader environmental and societal impacts of these systems.

Across all tools and contexts:

• We treat AI systems as external parties when handling information and apply the same discretion we would when sharing data with colleagues or clients.
• We do not enter proprietary, confidential, or sensitive information into AI systems unless explicitly approved and secured.
• We recognize that AI systems may introduce privacy, security, and compliance risks, and we actively manage those risks in tool selection and usage.

We acknowledge that AI systems have environmental impacts, including energy consumption associated with both training and inference. While we recognize ongoing improvements in efficiency, we consider sustainability implications when adopting and scaling AI tools.

We also recognize that AI systems can produce uneven outcomes across different demographic groups, including risks related to bias, representation, and fairness. We commit to using AI in ways that support inclusivity, mitigate bias where possible, and avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or inequities.

We ensure that AI-generated or AI-assisted outputs are subject to human review and contextual interpretation. Human judgment remains responsible for decisions, and we actively consider whether AI outputs may have unintended impacts on individuals or groups before they are used in practice.