Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming organizations, industries, and the technology landscape. The world is moving to the increased adoption of AI-powered smart applications/systems, and this trend will increase exponentially over the next few years. AI technologies are maturing, and the need to leverage their capabilities is becoming a CXO priority.

As businesses make AI part of their core strategy, the transformation of business functions, measures, and controls to ensure ethical best practices will gain importance. The implementation and the governance of ethical AI practices will become a priority and a board-level concern. The deployment of AI solutions that are ethical (from a regulatory and a legal standpoint), transparent, and without bias will become essential.
As governments and industry bodies across the world articulate AI regulations, AI companies must establish their ethical frameworks until roadmaps are clearly defined.

The operationalization of ethical AI principles is challenging for enterprises, given the large volumes of user-centric data that need to be processed, the breadth of use-cases, the regulatory variations in operating markets, and the diverse stakeholder priorities. This also opens up opportunities for technology vendors and service providers. To effectively partner with enterprises and monetize these opportunities, ICT providers need to assess potential areas impacting AI ethics and evaluate opportunities across the people-process-technology spectrum.

Forward-thinking technology and service companies, including large ICT providers and start-ups, are working with enterprises and industry stakeholders to leverage potential opportunities. Ethical challenges will continue to be discovered and remediated to create sustained growth in potential advisory services. As enterprises define goals, values, strategic outcomes, and key performance metrics, the time is right for technology companies to strategically partner with enterprises in the detection and the mitigation of ethical AI concerns.

Author: Nishchal Khorana