The importance of Responsible AI principles in your AI strategy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the critical innovations that will continue to change the way the world works in the coming years. In our increasingly digitally connected world, AI strategy and development is a necessary consideration for companies in various industries, from financial services to sports medicine. Whether using machine learning analytics, intelligent security, or other use, AI has the potential to transform how we work and understand information. However, some downsides come with engaging with AI. To avoid them, every organization must consider Responsible AI principles.
Why are Responsible AI principles essential?
While the combination of human ingenuity and AI’s scalability in the cloud creates incredible potential, the massive disruptive potential of AI’s impact means that it could do major harm. It therefore becomes the responsibility of organizations to consider that are developing and using AI to consider these impacts—such as worker displacement, privacy concerns, biases in decision-making, and lack of control over automated systems. With the right planning, the right oversight, and proper governance, these challenges are surmountable.
What are Responsible AI principles?
Responsible AI is a framework that brings together several practices that are critical to ensuring AI’s power isn’t misused and that negative externalities of incorporating AI-powered intelligent services don’t occur. This means focusing on providing transparent, ethical, and accountable use of AI in a way that’s consistent with your organizational values, laws, and norms, as well as customer and other user expectations.
Customers today expect personalized digital experiences, and companies must adapt and leverage disruptive technologies such as AI. AI’s ability to transform core business functions with analysis of previously unstructured data makes it an incredible tool for change. Organizations that fail to integrate AI into their strategy are likely to struggle to keep up with more savvy competitors in the coming decades.
However, with all of this interconnected customer data comes increasing regulatory demands and privacy concerns. There are also widespread fears by both individuals and governments about the potential impact of AI on workforces and worker displacement. Add to that potential biases in AI algorithms, and decision making, and concerns over lack of human control over AI-enabled automated systems, and it becomes essential that your organization supports a Responsible AI framework.
How can you incorporate Responsible AI?
Incorporating Responsible AI means centering people in your AI frameworks. Organizations that fail to consider the full implications of unlocking intelligent business services and tools run the risk of consumer backlash, regulatory failures, and other issues. To ensure privacy and security are incorporated in your intelligence tools, you need to work with strategic partners that build security into every step of their process and use Responsible AI throughout your intelligent transformation process.
- Design: Security and privacy need to be part of every step of your AI systems design. It is also a good idea for AI systems to explain the rationale behind decision-making processes to increase trust.
- Governance: Your local regulations and organizational core values must be considered when developing your AI system’s governance framework as well as ethical considerations.
- Monitoring: One of the significant concerns with AI, is the black-box nature of the systems—can you monitor the automated systems you create? To avoid this problem, human supervision of AI needs to be an ongoing effort, including auditing for accountability, bias, and security of algorithms.Without regular monitoring, your team won’t be able to govern your AI systems and adjust for bias effectively.
- Training: AI is intimidating to many employees. To ensure systems are used properly and to their capacity, employees must understand the workings and operation of the AI systems they use. Ideally, employees should have a voice in the design and creation of these intelligent systems to ensure AI improves their work experience and can fully take advantage of the insights and automation that AI analysis can offer.
By including Responsible AI principles in your organization’s intelligent services, you help ensure regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction, and empowered employees.To deepen your understanding of Responsible AI and prepare for AI’s disruptive impact, contact our team at [email protected] to discuss your AI strategy and integration.