H5 - Leading the Responsible Use of AI in Behavioral Health

As artificial intelligence (AI) tools become more common in behavioral health, leaders are being asked to make important decisions about which tools to adopt and how to use them responsibly. However, many organizations are still figuring out how to evaluate these tools, what questions to ask vendors, and how to judge whether the answers they receive are actually meaningful.

This session will give behavioral health leaders practical, real-world tools to help navigate AI adoption and governance, drawing on the National Council’s national viewpoint of adoption among community behavioral health providers and the Center for Health AI’s (CHAI) leadership in responsible AI. Presenters will walk through emerging resources such as AI model cards, risk categorization frameworks, and governance tools, with a focus on patient safety, equity, data transparency, and operational risk, and share concrete examples to help organizations make more informed decisions, work more effectively with vendors, and put the right guardrails in place as they innovate.