From Code to Collaboration: AI's Role in Shaping Organisational Culture

Topic Overview: Applied to the right data, AI and other algorithms offer powerful tools for revealing organisational working practices. How can we use these tools for the greater good – helping the organisation achieve their goals while applying good working practices? Introduction When working with scientific data, there are fundamental principles that everyone agrees on: standardisation, integration capabilities, data reusability, transparency, interoperability, and long-term data accessibility. Current data practices and their use in AI technologies are further changing the way data is analysed and managed. Practitioners are keen to break down silos, work together in a more interdisciplinary manner, share good working practices, and standardise tools that lead to reproducible outcomes. A greater need for collaboration is being expressed across all levels of the organisation, including the business teams and those developing specific data and AI tools. But how do we achieve all of this? And how, especially, do we achieve it in an organisation comprising specialists across a range of scientific disciplines, delivering a range of technical solutions for varying sectors in countries around the world? As a UK government agency seeking to tackle some of the world’s most urgent environmental problems, Cefas (the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) is an example of an organisation grappling with exactly those questions. Reflecting on this challenge in the context of Cefas, Joseph Ribeiro, a fisheries data scientist at Cefas for almost a decade, and Expert-in-Residence (EiR) in The Turing Way Practitioners Hub, has developed this case study as a means of understanding alignment. Acknowledgements This case study is published under The Turing Way Practitioners Hub 2024-25 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. In 2024, The Turing Way team welcomed Joseph Ribeiro, data scientist at Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), as Experts in Residence to represent interests and opportunities in agriculture and fisheries. We thank them for their participation in the Practitioners Hub and for leading the development of this case study. This work is supported by Innovate UK BridgeAI. The Practitioners Hub has also received funding and support from the Ecosystem Leadership Award under the EPSRC Grant EP/X03870X/1 & The Alan Turing Institute. The Turing Way Practitioners Hub’s 2024-25 Cohort was co-delivered by Dr Malvika Sharan, Senior Researcher - Open Research and Arielle Bennett, Senior Researcher - Open Source Practices. Stuart Gillespie is the technical editor for this case study. Léllé Demertzi is the Research Project Manager. The Turing Way Practitioners Hub, designed and launched in 2023 by Dr Sharan, aims to accelerate the adoption of best practices. Through a six-month cohort-based program, the Hub facilitates knowledge sharing, skill exchange, case study co-creation, and the adoption of open science practices. It also fosters a network of 'Experts in Residence' across partnering organisations. For any comments, questions or collaboration with The Turing Way, please email: [email protected].