Businesses Have High Hopes For Responsible AI: Will It Deliver?


Businesses Have High Hopes For Responsible AI: Will It Deliver?

Artificial intelligence presents a high-risk, high-reward opportunity for businesses. The risks are making many executives nervous. At least 72% of companies temporarily paused their AI and gen AI projects in the past year due to concerns about the potential risks of AI. In addition, only one percent feel fully prepared to adapt to new AI-related laws over the next five years. Plus, 45% believe "there's better than a one-in-four chance of a major AI incident occurring in the next 12 months."

To address this, attention has turned to "responsible AI," which is not only seen as a compliance tool, but also as a boost to business.

That's the word from a recent global survey of 1,000 companies, conducted and published by Accenture and Amazon Web Services. The report's co-authors also point to Fortune 500 companies' annual reports, in which 56% cite AI as a "risk factor" -- up from just nine percent a year ago.

Enter responsible AI, part of a movement that seeks to promote actions to design, deploy and use AI to mitigate risk and build trust. The International Standards Organization offers the following definition:

"Responsible AI is the practice of developing and using AI systems in a way that benefits society while minimizing the risk of negative consequences. It's about creating AI technologies that not only advance our capabilities, but also address ethical concerns - particularly with regard to bias, transparency and privacy. This includes tackling issues such as the misuse of personal data, biased algorithms, and the potential for AI to perpetuate or exacerbate existing inequalities. The goal is to build trustworthy AI systems that are, all at once, reliable, fair and aligned with human values."

Does the initiation and support of responsible AI practices help ensure against the technology's worst abuses? It may help, and there's another positive side the Accenture/AWS survey finds -- responsible AI "contributes to value creation in many ways, ranging from customer satisfaction to product quality," the co-authors found.

Is it a halo effect taking place -- that openly pursuing and demonstrating ethical and responsible AI practices reflects well on a company's image? Or is it something deeper? Embedding responsible AI practices into technologies and processes may be natural to a forward-looking and responsible overall corporate culture that goes a long way toward delivering both employee and customer joy.

The survey found that companies investing in responsible AI expect a majority of executives anticipate total enterprise revenues to "increase by 11% or more over three years with fully developed responsible AI capabilities."

Another 25% say responsible AI practices will help increase customer loyalty and satisfaction and a 21% reduction in customer turnover. This happens because "responsible AI can help ensure AI applications are fair, transparent, and trustworthy," the report states. Plus, more than half of organizations, 61%, "anticipate a strong or very strong impact from responsible AI on improving contract win rates."

There are internal benefits as well. More than eight in 10 executives, 82%, "expect communicating a mature AI approach to responsible AI will significantly improve employee trust in AI adoption leading to innovation." Furthermore, they expect a 20% improvement in time-to-hire, a 21% increase in the quality of recruits and a 21% boost in talent retention.

The Accenture/AWS authors offer some advice for pursuing the path to responsible AI:

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