From Principles to Practice: Internalising the 7 Responsible AI Guiding Principles Through the Ishola’s Triple H Model

By Ishola Ayodele

As I navigate the closing days of 2025, I see the digital landscape pulsing with unprecedented energy. Artificial intelligence has woven itself into the fabric of public relations and communication, with a staggering 91 per cent of organisations worldwide now permitting its use. However, a stark reality shadows this innovation as only 39.4 per cent have implemented responsible frameworks for the use of AI. As the Venice Pledge warns, we are drowning in principles yet starving for practice. This is why I am so proud that Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management of which NIPR is a member is the first professional body to design a guideline for responsible use of AI known as the Global Alliance’s Seven Responsible AI Guiding Principles updated in May 2025 amid the historic Venice Symposium and ratified through the Venice Pledge by 24 member organisations including Nigeria’s NIPR.

This is why the final 2025 MCPD of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) was more than a luncheon; it was a seismic rumble across our professional landscape. Titled “PR Power Lunch: Advancing Responsible AI Practice,” the session spotlighted the Global Alliance’s Seven Responsible AI Guiding Principles.

1. Ethics First AI must adhere to unwavering ethical standards, aligning with Global Alliance codes. In Africa, this echoes the Akan proverb: “The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.” Ethical lapses, like AI perpetuating colonial-era biases in media narratives, ruin trust from within. Nigerian PR professionals, through NIPR, champion this by prioritising integrity over hasty innovation.

2. Human-Led Governance Human oversight must govern AI, addressing privacy, bias, and disinformation. As Africa’s data scarcity breeds opaque models, glass-box transparency open to scrutiny like a village elder’s counsel becomes essential. Governance here means communal deliberation, ensuring AI respects diverse stakeholder voices.

3. Personal and Organisational Responsibility Professionals own AI outputs, demanding rigorous fact-checking and education. In high-stakes environments like Kenya’s vibrant media landscape, where misinformation can ignite unrest, this principle calls for diligence akin to the Maasai warrior’s vigilance, owning every action to protect the community.

4. Awareness, Openness, and Transparency: Disclose AI involvement openly, with attribution. In Africa’s oral cultures, transparency mirrors the griot’s truthful storytelling: “A lie may travel for a moon, but truth will overtake it.” PR teams must declare AI’s role in campaigns, building trust amid rising deepfake threats.

5. Education and Professional Development: Continuous learning is a core competency. With Africa’s youth bulge driving innovation, associations like the African Public Relations Association must lead upskilling, collaborating with bodies like FERPI to create curricula that blend global tools with local wisdom.

6. Active Global Voice PR professionals advocate for equitable AI, shaping governance. African voices from Nigeria to South Africa must be amplified in international forums, ensuring AI addresses continental challenges like digital divides, turning advocates into architects of inclusive futures.

7. Human-Centred AI for the Common Good Champion AI that promotes societal well-being and equity. In Africa, this means tools tackling unemployment, climate resilience, or health equity, augmenting intention toward ubuntu, where AI fosters prosperity for all, mindful of environmental impacts in vulnerable ecosystems.

As the Akan proverb teaches:

“Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no single individual can embrace it alone.” These seven principles are the baobab vast, ancient, life-giving. But to benefit from its shade, we must learn how to gather under it. We must move from awareness to practice. And this can only be achieved through internalisation.

This is where the Triple H Model: Head, Heart, Hand becomes our blueprint: not just to adopt AI, but to humanise it; not to follow rules, but to embody responsibility.

The Core Philosophy behind my 3H Model, as articulated in my article in July this year (2025) titled “Strategic Use of AI Tools in PR Campaigns and Reputation Management.”

My core argument is that AI is a double-edged sword which extends human purpose, amplifies creativity and equity when ethically directed, but diverted from its human source, it floods like a wayward river, eroding trust.

As a 2025 PRWeek and Boston University survey of 719 professionals reveals, while 71 per cent of PR pros leverage AI for innovation, ethical lapses like bias and misinformation persist in 55 per cent of firms lacking policies. Ishola’s 3H Model counters this by grounding AI in human essence.

It is only by grounding AI in human essence that we can internalise the Global Alliance’s Seven Responsible AI Guiding Principles for implementation. No matter the conviction of a driver on his driving prowess, the car will not move without fuel. Therefore, pledge and commitment alone will not drive the implementation of these seven Responsible AI Guiding Principles, but internalisation. And this is why the 3H Model is so crucial.

Here is a short explanation of the 3H Model (I recommend reading the article for an in-depth understanding)

Human Before Algorithm. That is, before we prompt AI, we must prompt ourselves with intentionality. Here is how to do it:

Obama’s speeches didn’t begin with AI; they began with empathy. His team identified collective anxieties and aspirations before digital refinement.

AI is the chisel, but you must be the sculptor, visualising the form before the first cut.

Coca-Cola uses AI to scan sentiment, but human strategists interpret why a campaign resonates in Manila but fails in Mumbai, and identify trends; humans give them meaning.

Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us” was emotionally architected using Maslow and identity theory; AI stitched the footage, but humans built the soul.

As neuroscientist Antonio Damasio reminds us: “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.” Thus, use AI as a draftsman, not as the architect.

Like a chef seasoning a stew, use AI to A/B test headlines, but taste every iteration. As the African proverb warns, “You do not test the depth of a river with both feet.”

Test incrementally, AI is your tool, not your truth.

Your team’s discernment is your greatest strategic asset.

AI processes data; humans process dignity.

This is where ethics cease to be a policy and become a practice.

During the Qatar World Cup, Adidas used AI to track fan sentiment, but human reviewers ensured visuals honoured local codes. Innovation without cultural sensitivity is arrogance.

The WHO labelled its AI chatbots openly during COVID-19, a small disclosure that preserved global credibility.

As Kevin Plank, founder of ‘Under Armour’, once said, “Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets.”

Secrecy erodes trust; transparency rebuilds it.

Duolingo’s AI tutors are trained on idioms, humour, and cultural nuance, making learning human. Our elders say, “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

Feed the machine with stories only humans can tell.

Execution without ethics is automation. Action without accountability is recklessness.

LinkedIn’s AI drafts messages, but wise professionals infuse warmth, humour,and cultural touchpoints.

AI operates on System 1 (fast, instinctive); PR requires System 2 (deliberate, nuanced). Our forefathers in Africa understood this well when they said, “Words are sweet, but they can’t replace food.” 

An AI message lacks the nourishment of human presence.

The UK’s NHS uses AI for symptom checks, but escalates complex cases to doctors.

Why? Because a misinterpreted symptom can cost a life. In PR, a misworded statement can cost a reputation.

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal was not a tech failure; it was a human oversight failure.

No AI should ever be left alone in the control room.

In summary:

The HEAD plans.

The HEART guides.

The HAND executes.

A principle without practice is mere rhetoric. Therefore, signing the Venice Pledge without implementing the Responsible AI principles in our daily work is an echo in an empty hall, sound without substance, promise without presence. The 3H Model transforms that echo into action. It ensures AI remains Augmented Intention, not artificial replacement. This human-centred discipline, thinking with clarity, leading with empathy, and acting with integrity, is what will propel PR professionals from passive adopters to strategic architects.

Consequently, we move the Global Alliance’s Seven Responsible AI Guiding Principles from principle to practice, from pledge to performance, and from ethics on paper to excellence in action. The future of PR is not written by algorithms; it is authored by professionals who remember that the most intelligent tool is still only as wise as the human who wields it.