Corporate leaders see ethical problems in AI, robotics & Co.
Companies need to act quickly to tackle the ethical challenges posed by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the like. The Avanade trend analyses show this, as well as controversial debates on digital transformation.
For the survey on the conditions of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics & Co. in companies, a total of 1,200 so-called "C-levels" responsible (high-ranking IT and business decision-makers) were questioned. The majority of the responses (82 percent) revealed that digital ethics are indeed necessary as a basis for successful AI use. At the same time, however, 81 percent of interviewees said they lacked full confidence in their organizations to make adequate preparations. Thus, four out of five participants see shortcomings in addressing ethical issues related to AI, robotics and similar technologies.
Andreas Schindler, Managing Director of Avanade Schweiz GmbH, says that digital ethics as a topic on the boardroom agenda is growing in importance even faster than IT security: "Increasingly, customers are approaching us to have corresponding business-critical discussions. A resilient ethics framework plays an increasingly important role in building long-term, trustworthy relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders."
Job description Ethics Officer
While compliance officers are commonplace in companies today, that is not currently the case for ethics officers. This will change: Avanade predicts a significant increase in such positions here with digital ethics in mind over the next one to three years. These roles could have broad cross-cutting functions into most other business areas, including compliance, risk management, product development, marketing, brand and reputation management, corporate citizenship and more.
Consequently, Avanade has established a global, cross-functional working group within the company. It is responsible for developing and steering the appropriate internal ethics framework. This framework has four components: Fairness and Inclusion, Human Accountability, Trustworthiness and Adaptability. Decisions derived from this framework are ultimately made by the company's Ethics and Compliance Council.
"Digital ethics is increasingly becoming a topic of discussion on the board. However, it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that their company takes into account the ethical consequences of their actions," says Schindler. "Acting means setting guiding principles, making them transparent internally and externally, and providing training. Using ethics hackers for unannounced reviews is also advisable, as is engaging in public debate. Most importantly, employees should be given both best practices and tools to incorporate 'ethics by design' into their work."
