Although the majority of organisations (68%) acknowledge that having a diverse and inclusive workplace is important to mitigating bias in AI, a new study indicates that AI teams are still substantially less diverse than their organisations’ workforces.
In fact, according to IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) study, they are 5.5 times less inclusive of women; 4 times less inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals; and 1.7 times less racially inclusive. Yet 75% of leaders believe ethics is a source of competitive differentiation; and more than 67% that view AI and AI ethics as important indicated that their organisations outperform their peers in sustainability, social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion.
The global study also indicates that despite a strong imperative for advancing trustworthy AI, including better performance compared to peers in sustainability, social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion, there remains a gap between leaders’ intentions and meaningful actions.
AI ETHICS DRIVERS
Building trustworthy AI is perceived to be a strategic differentiator and organisations are beginning to implement AI ethics mechanisms. More than three-quarters of business leaders surveyed this year agree AI ethics is important to their organisations; up from about 50% in 2018.
Additionally, non technical business executives are now seen to be the driving force in AI ethics. CEOs (28%), Board members (10%), General Counsels (10%), Privacy Officers (8%), and Risk & Compliance Officers (6%) are viewed as being the most accountable for AI ethics. While 66% of respondents cite the CEO or other C-level executive as having a strong influence on their organisation’s ethics strategy, more than half cite board directives (58%) and the shareholder community (53%). Many companies have started making strides. In fact, more than half of respondents say their organisations have taken steps to embed AI ethics into their existing approach to business ethics.
Ensuring ethical principles are embedded in AI solutions is an urgent need for organisations; but progress is still too slow, noted the study. However, more CEOs (79%) are prepared to embed AI ethics into their AI practices; up from 20% in 2018. Additionally, more than half of responding organisations have publicly endorsed common principles of AI ethics. Yet, less than a quarter of organisations have operationalised AI ethics; and fewer than 20% strongly agreed that their organisation’s practices and actions match (or exceed) their stated principles and values.
FAIR & TRUSTWORTHY SYSTEMS
“As many companies today use AI algorithms across their business, they potentially face increasing internal and external demands to design these algorithms to be fair, secured and trustworthy. Yet, there has been little progress across the industry in embedding AI ethics into their practices,” said Jesus Mantas, Global Managing Partner of IBM Consulting. “Our IBV study findings demonstrate that building trustworthy AI is a business imperative and a societal expectation; not just a compliance issue. As such, companies can implement a governance model and embed ethical principles across the full AI life cycle.”
The time for companies to act is now. The study data suggests that organisations who implement a broad AI ethics strategy interwoven throughout business units may have a competitive advantage moving forwards.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
The study provides recommended actions for business leaders. They include:
- Take a cross-functional, collaborative approach. Ethical AI requires a holistic approach; and a holistic set of skills across all stakeholders involved in the AI ethics process. C-Suite executives, designers, behavioural scientists, data scientists, and AI engineers each have a distinct role to play in the trustworthy AI journey.
- Establish both organisational and AI lifecycle governance to operationalize the discipline of AI ethics. Take a holistic approach to incentivising, managing and governing AI solutions across the full AI lifecycle; from establishing the right culture to nurture AI responsibly, to practices and policies to products.
- Reach beyond your organisation for partnership. Expand your approach by identifying and engaging key AI-focused technology partners, academics, start-ups; and other ecosystem partners to establish “ethical interoperability.”
The IBV study, AI ethics in action: An enterprise guide to progressing trustworthy AI, surveying executives in 22 countries across 22 industries is available here.
Over 90% tech leaders say AI ethics policy is vital for all industries. Click here to read more.
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