TL;DR
At Intelligence Assist, we understand the importance of integrating AI into your business with a focus on trustworthiness and transparency, guided by ethical, social, and governance (ESG) policies.
The blog discusses the concerns you probably already have around bias, user privacy, and the ethical use of AI. We then offer practical ways you can integrate effective and trusted AI into your ways of working, with the paramount importance being transparency in AI use and the introduction of AI policies.
Despite the current lack of government regulation or public policy, we advocate adopting AI technologies proactively, leveraging their benefits to enhance business operations and customer experiences, all while striving for full transparency and responsible implementation.
This post was written by Harriet Brown in collaboration with Perplexity & Copy.ai
At Intelligence Assist, our commitment is not just to deliver cutting-edge, value-add AI solutions but also ensuring they are trustworthy and transparent. As individuals and businesses integrate more and more AI into lives, it's crucial that we address the array of concerns that come along with it.
Just like in life where trust must be earned, so it is true for AI, that trust can be earned by considering your values and ethical, social and governance (ESG) policies. Don’t have an ESG Policy? I challenge that you have one without even realising. As a small business owner, you are making decisions every day and as a human-being you have a moral compass that inherently makes you consider what is right for you, your business, your customers, your community and the world at large.
While AI holds immense potential to transform everything from how we handle customer service to streamlining operations, it's not without its challenges. For instance, how do we ensure AI isn't biased? What measures are in place to protect user privacy?
The best way to tackle these concerns is by bringing these concerns to the surface. Things you have probably already asked yourself are:
Do staff think they are cheating when they use AI? Do they think they are copying someone else’s work?
If I use AI artwork, am I hurting artists?
What is the Government policy towards AI? If there is no Government policy, should I really be using it?
Let’s start with Governance
If you are not sure what to think or do, hopefully the government has an opinion, a policy or at least an idea. In Australia there is still not government regulation surrounding AI, but they have released an AI framework to guide businesses. We’ve read it and well, it’s ok but not that helpful.
This isn’t new. As seen in Martec’s Law, government policy always comes in a lot later than individual and business use. Individuals tend to adopt technology in their lives, and then bring it into work allowing businesses to adopt the new technology; after this governments tend to bring in regulation.
We suggest not waiting for government policy. Technology will continue to adapt, and it will be easier to change your policies in the future than it will be to implement AI when you’re far behind your competitors.
In the meantime, be responsible and adopt an ethical, human-centric and socially beneficial strategy.
The use of AI is nothing to be ashamed of trust AI?
Unsurprisingly, at Intelligence Assist, we strongly encourage it (hence why we do what we do!).
trust AI?
Start by encouraging staff to be comfortable with using it, embrace it in everyday tasks. Some staff members may feel shame when using AI for basic tasks, almost like they aren’t working ‘hard enough’ because AI can be seen as the ‘easy option’. Would you stop your accountant using a calculator?
In modern-day small business, working smarter not harder is what will enable quicker business growth than before. Small business employees will typically have a larger job description than that of large corporations – encouraging staff to use AI will free up their time to achieve more.
Our solution? Help them use it in the right way.
1. Introduce an Acceptable Use of AI Policy which will address issues of using AI such as data privacy, fairness, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations. The policy supports best practices in AI, ensuring that the organisational use aligns with ethical and legal standards. Many employees will feel more comfortable with using AI when such policies are put into place, but also use AI when speaking to customers and clients because they are abiding by policies. Read more about implementing an AUP see our blog here.
2. Be Open and Transparent about AI: Clearly explain how your AI systems function and most importantly, if AI has been used, tell people! When using AI generated images, always credit the AI tool and the user who prompted the image generation; we say ‘Image generated by AI tool, prompted by User of Company. AI artwork is still artwork that requires input, and so deserves credit.
3. Select the Right Tools: By now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the disaster that is Google’s AI search engine fails. Google have argued that many of these posts were isolated responses and doesn’t reflect that of the real world, however, AI still produced these responses. Their AI tool had not been trained on how to identify satire posts, in particular when it suggested using non-toxic glue for a pizza base – The sauce (I’m sorry) of this came from a reddit post, that Google read as being legit and actually suggested this to people. This also begs the question of if people really want AI in their search engine? You can’t turn it off so despite what views you have of AI, you are stuck with it!
The real implications suggest that diminished trust in AI could lead to decreased adoption and utilization. To counteract this within your organization, it's essential to establish a responsible AI use strategy and policy. Engaging professionals like us can be the simplest way forward, yet you should also consider adhering to the following principles:
Do not rush - Take time to properly train your AI. Conduct thorough testing, retest, and ensure that your staff are well prepared for implementation.
Embrace continuous improvement - Regularly refine your AI by incorporating user feedback. Given AI's nascent stage, it needs to evolve with your business's growth. Address any discrepancies, such as inconsistencies in your brand's voice, erratic behaviours from your chatbots, or outdated algorithms that slow down your processes. Staff and customer feedback is critical to ensuring smooth operations.
Align AI with your company values - Train all AI tools to adhere to your organization's best practices. Without this alignment, AI's outputs may be too generic and unable to meet your specific needs.
Be selective with AI implementation - Avoid adopting AI just for the sake of it. Instead, focus on using AI to streamline the aspects of your business that are laborious or that you prefer not to do, allowing AI to handle those time-consuming tasks efficiently.
Achieving full trust with AI is challenging, but the advantages are too significant to ignore. As we continuously work towards this goal, the journey itself becomes one of learning, adaptation, and commitment to excellence. The benefits may outweigh the risks but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them. We believe that the risks can be minimised with Responsible and Transparent AI.
At Intelligence Assist, we are dedicated to fostering an environment where AI enriches your experiences and operations in a manner that is both understandable and trustworthy. We invite you to join us on this transformative journey, where your engagement and trust drive us to better and more responsible AI applications.
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