The Jersey AI playbook: A strong start, and what comes next.

In March, a group of Jersey’s key organisations published the Jersey AI Playbook. Government, regulators, industry bodies, and independent experts all came together to set out what the island’s approach to AI should look like.

That’s worth pausing on. Getting that many organisations aligned on anything is hard. Getting them aligned on something as fast-moving as AI is impressive. Fair play to everyone involved.

What’s actually in it

The playbook is 30 pages, and it’s an easy read. At its heart are seven guiding principles, things like balancing innovation with risk, keeping humans in the loop, building ethics in from the start, and breaking down data silos. All sensible. All things any business should be thinking about.

Then there are five strategic objectives for the island: strengthening Jersey’s position in financial services, driving productivity, improving regulation, building workforce skills, and championing ethical AI.

The objectives are solid. They do lean towards financial services, which makes sense given finance is over 40% of our economy. If you’re running a business outside of finance, don’t let that put you off. The principles apply to every sector. The productivity argument applies to every sector. The skills gap applies to every sector. You just have to read it knowing not every paragraph was written with you in mind.

My honest take

The playbook is a strong starting point. The principles are right, the cross-island collaboration is encouraging, and the case for getting started with AI is well made.

What I’d love to see next is more on the “how.” The playbook talks about our island advantage being small, fast, and able to pull together. That’s true. The question now is what practical changes follow. More clarity on data protection, sensible guardrails, and real support for businesses to get started would turn good principles into real momentum.

The document says the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of getting started. I agree. And that applies to all of us, including the people who wrote it.

Don’t wait for the roadmap

If you run a business in Jersey, my advice is the same regardless of what comes next. Don’t wait.

The businesses making real progress with AI aren’t waiting for a roadmap. They’re looking at where time is being wasted, where data is messy, and where their people are stuck doing repetitive work. That’s the starting point. The playbook’s principles are a useful guide for those decisions, but the action has to come from you.

A practical next step

One of the organisations that co-wrote the playbook, the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner, is joining us on a webinar on the 28th of May called “AI Without the Risk,” alongside Paul Byrne from PropelFwd. They’ll be getting into the practical side of using AI responsibly under Jersey’s data protection law.

If you want to move forward with AI but want to know you’re doing it right, this is a good place to start.

Read the full Jersey AI Playbook.