Tollivar: Using AI to support proactive ethical alignment in organisational decision-making

This case study explores how the AI governance advisory company Tollivar has created an experimental, AI-assisted ethical assurance protocol designed to help organisations align proposed decisions with globally recognised public-purpose goals such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), OECD AI Principles, and other international standards. Developed by public international law expert Dr Yoriko Otomo, an Expert-in-Residence in The Turing Way Practitioners Hub, the project uses a case study to examine whether the AI-assisted protocol can be used to support real-time governance through assessing e.g. the alignment of major infrastructure or similar development projects with SDGs in BAU decision-making. The intention is to create an open access protocol and, potentially, a commercialised AI agent that can support governments and businesses to make more informed, ethical and traceable decisions. This case study is published under The Turing Way Practitioners Hub 2025-26 Cohort - case study series. The Practitioners Hub is The Turing Way project that works with experts from partnering organisations to promote data science best practices. Key takeaways Proactive ethical alignment may reduce the long-term risks and harms of infrastructure and development projects more effectively than reactive or even pre-training approaches. AI excels at synthesising large volumes of documentation and supporting decision-making, but human oversight is critical and cannot be replaced by AI. Product testing is necessary throughout the development journey, and in this case, demonstrated the need to find additional ways of building and testing the tool. Features such as the Tollivar protocol’s ‘traceability schema’ are essential to ensure transparency and accountability for AI-assisted outputs – particularly in sensitive, high-stakes fields. While domain-specific knowledge is crucial, working alongside technical experts, as well as relevant government agencies, is also important for getting an AI-based product off the ground and developing it to its full potential.