Common Wealth AI Principles

Common Wealth has taken a principles-based approach to artificial intelligence, choosing to define our own path rather than adopt a framework developed for a different purpose. In the same way we have been deliberate in shaping our company culture, we have been deliberate in shaping our approach to AI, ensuring it reflects our mission, vision, and values.

1. AI has tremendous promise to help us accelerate our mission, if we use it well.

Our mission is to make financial security in retirement accessible to everyone, and technology has long been central to that effort. AI represents a natural extension of this work, not a departure from it. Applied thoughtfully, it allows us to create greater value for the members and partners we serve.

2. We will use AI to augment human potential, not simply replace human tasks.

This principle draws on economist Daron Acemoglu’s research on how technology should augment, rather than replace, human capability, and on one of our own values: we take joy in harnessing each other’s unique strengths, perspectives, and potential. AI is a tool for helping our people do their best work, not a substitute for the people themselves.

3. The values, judgment, and core intelligence of Common Wealth must remain human.

Perhaps our most important principle. AI is a tool, not a decision maker, and the judgment, creativity, and intelligence that define Common Wealth remain the responsibility of our people. The principle builds on an idea articulated by Pope Leo in his encyclical: that human and artificial intelligence are fundamentally distinct.

“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean.”
— Pope Leo

4. We will take ownership of AI-generated outputs.

The use of AI does not change who is accountable for the resulting work. This principle draws directly on two of our values, ownership and quality: whatever AI helps produce, we stand behind it as our own.

5. AI fluency is an expectation, and an opportunity, for everyone.

We are committed to Common Wealth being a place where every team member can build AI fluency more quickly and more thoughtfully than at most other organizations. This is not simply a technical objective; it is an investment in the capabilities of our people.

6. We will learn faster and better if we learn together.

This principle reflects our commitment to being a learning organization. Rather than allowing knowledge of AI to remain scattered and individual, we are building shared principles and collective intelligence around AI as a team.

7. AI success is about creativity and management as much as technical skill.

As AI tools become more accessible and technical barriers continue to fall, the greatest differentiator is not the ability to code, but the ability to think creatively and manage AI effectively to achieve results. Technical skill remains valuable, but it is no longer a prerequisite for success.

8. We should remain humble and be prepared to revise our views.

We recognize that our understanding of AI will continue to evolve, and we do not expect to have all the answers today. This principle reflects both our learning-organization value and the humility we bring to another notoriously complex problem: retirement finance.