
Episode 23: Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Data Protection in an AI-Driven World
From The Data And AI Podcast by Harnham & Rockborne
May 22, 2026 · 48 min · Episode 23
About this episode
James Robson discusses how organizations can leverage data protection to enhance AI rollouts in a conversation with Waseem Ali.
"It's not 'don't do,' it's 'how to.'" James Robson, Founder of Datum Longevitus and former Data Protection Officer for the Labour Party reveals how organisations can use data protection to speed up AI rollouts rather than slow them down. In this Data & AI Podcast conversation with Waseem Ali, they talk about: Why DPOs need to be involved at the start of projects, and how to bring the wider business with you What organisations get wrong when rolling out Copilot and other LLM tools The ethics of automated decision-making and what transparency actually requires Why "human in the loop" still matters in AI-driven decision-making How poor AI configuration creates unnecessary data and IP risk Waseem and James also explore real examples shaping the future of AI governance, including the Labour Party's data environment, the Housing Helper homelessness chatbot used by local councils, and the facial recognition platform PIM Eyes. The episode closes with James's view on what's next: trusted data intermediaries that let organisations share data compliantly, and could reshape the AI tools built on top of it. Plenty to take away for anyone working out where AI compliance ends and AI…
People in this episode
Host: Waseem Ali
Guest: James Robson
Topics covered
- data protection
- AI governance
- compliance
- automated decision-making
- AI innovation
- data sharing
Keywords
- data protection
- AI compliance
- DPO involvement
- automated decision-making
- AI tools
- data governance
- transparency
- human in the loop
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Datum Longevitus, Labour Party, Housing Helper, PIM Eyes
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