Can AI Replace Me Yet? Deep-Dive: AI DPO Outsourcing

I’ve just started a consulting business specialising in cybersecurity and privacy services for early stage companies. Every day I wonder if this was a shortsighted thing to do in the new world of AI. This thought has been consuming me so I want to break it down to first principles and try get my teeth around it. Across a series of blog posts I am going to take a deep dive into common areas of focus for my company to examine how efficiently AI can replace them, and I’m going to bring you along for the ride!

What Is DPO Outsourcing?

The role of the Data Protection Officer (”DPO”) became wide-spread around 2018 when it was mandated by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”). Many companies scrambled to understand if they needed a DPO, and where the role would fit into their organisations.

In my experience, many still haven’t found a place for it, and this is why they turn to an outsourced DPO. Over a certain size, companies are legally required to have a DPO, so many decide to outsource it to a specialist instead of training someone in-house. Depending on the company this can work well. The DPO role has some really well defined tasks that an outsourced person can execute on, including:

• Informing companies and their data subjects (employees and customers) about their data protection rights; monitoring and protecting those rights;

• Advise on interpreting and applying data protection rules;

• Maintain detailed information on the processing activities of the company;

• Ensure compliance and promote accountability;

• Handle complaints and queries from data subjects;

• Collaborate with Supervisory Authorities on investigations and inspections.

So, What Can AI Replace?

Where AI clearly excels in the DPO role is summarising data protection law and giving you a high-level understanding of how to approach compliance. If you need a template for a Data Protection Impact Assessment, or an outline for a privacy policy, AI can deliver this perfectly. Maybe you want to understand the high-level similarities between Colorado’s privacy law and Virginia’s privacy law, then AI is a great place to start.

AI Regulation

AI can also help you understand AI….. hear me out on this! AI is new to most of us, and in a lot of organisations I am seeing the DPO being tasked with understanding AI regulation. Whether this the correct approach remains to be seen, but for a lot of DPOs it is the reality. If you find yourself being asked by your product team for advice on limitations for using data sets to train AI models you will need to understand AI models to answer this. Asking AI to help you understand the basics of AI models will enable you to meet with the product team and probe further.

But the next step of applying the AI regulation to your company's practices is where AI starts to fall short. AI doesn’t know the nuance of your company’s cultural values, your specific regulatory risk exposure, where the ‘privacy bodies’ are buried, and how recent rulings and interpretations of data protection law fits with that context.

DPOs spend half their lives translating “lawyer-speak” into “engineer-speak” and then back again. AI can set you up well to cut time spent on this translation, but it often lacks the required nuance to get a privacy initiative off the ground in a way that will suit your company. Telling an engineer why consent banners matter in a way that doesn’t cause eye-rolls requires empathy, humour, and a feel for your company’s engineering cultural values.

The Role of Chatbots

Another area within privacy where AI can be really successful is utilisation of AI chat bots and knowledge repositories to answer commonly asked questions from sales and support teams. Most B2B DPOs spend more time with the sales team than any other team. They are usually critical to larger deals with enterprise customers, but for smaller deals a lot of repetitive questions from prospects and customers come your way every day. Storing answers to these questions and providing your sales and support teams access to them through something like Notion AI will save you hours and give you time to focus on the larger deals.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Looking to the final bullet point in our list of tasks for the DPO we see “collaborate with Supervisory Authorities on investigations and inspections.” The DPO serves as the company's interface with regulatory authorities. When a Supervisory Authority raises a complaint, they expect the DPO to manage it, to provide necessary information, and help address their concerns. This is an area where I don’t see AI providing much benefit. Yes, in theory you could interface with a Supervisory Authority using an AI powered email to autonomously reply to their queries based on the context they have on your company. But should you? Absolutely not.

Chat GPT’s Response on DPO AI Outsourcing

This series wouldn’t be complete without understanding AI’s point of view too. I asked Chat GPT for their response to how well it could replace the role of a DPO and, with more self-deprecation than I personally thought was necessary, it replied:

“AI today makes a fantastic intern for a DPO: it drafts templates, summarises guidance, reminds you of deadlines, and even generates risk registers in neat Excel sheets. But as an outsourced DPO replacement, it’s still laughably unfit.”

My Conclusion

In my mind, AI DPO outsourcing is not at risk of being widespread yet. I don't think the DPO role should be fulfilled by AI. But equally, I don't believe it should be outsourced to someone who doesn't truly care about your company either.

In my experience as a DPO, I found that making privacy a core part of the organisation is the most effective approach. The only way to achieve this is to understand the company as a whole, get to know each department personally, and work with teams in their own language to integrate privacy with minimal friction. Privacy by design means being present from product conception through to marketing. Understanding the end-to-end company is essential, and this can only be achieved by engaging directly with the people who make up the company—something AI simply can't replace.

Can an outsourced DPO achieve this level of understanding? Yes, I believe so. A critical aspect of being a DPO is maintaining independence. While this seems contradictory to embedding within an organisation, it can be achieved by taking an advisory approach, building privacy awareness, and implementing privacy-by-design principles. The DPO works with specialist teams to advise and guide while allowing those teams to handle day-to-day implementation in ways that fit their workflows.

But as for AI specifically, I think DPOs who aren't leveraging AI are missing a massive time-saving opportunity. However, trying to use a chatbot to handle a complaint from a Data Protection Authority would likely fast-track you to a fine. In summary, the day AI charms the ICO or CNIL with nuance is the day we'll all have to pack it in.

This blog post is part of a series. Join me for future deep-dive topics on “Can AI Replace Me Yet?” including:

• Getting SOC2 certified

• Building a cross control compliance framework

• Rolling out a contract management tool

• …..and more to come!

Want to find out if I can help with your next privacy or cybersecurity project? Reach out at hello@closeitoutconsulting.com