70pc of customers expect fair AI interactions from firms: Report

Even as deployment of a range of Artificial Intelligence technologies grows, about 70 per cent of customers expect organisations to provide AI interactions that are transparent and fair, according to a global report by Capgemini.

Discriminatory bias of AI systems and negative AI customer experiences come at a high cost for organisations.

However, the share of customers who believe organisations are being fully transparent about how they are using their personal data has fallen from 76 per cent in 2019 to 62 per cent today, said the report.

"AI is a transformational technology with the power to bring about far-reaching developments across the business, as well as society and the environment," Anne-Laure Thieullent, Artificial Intelligence and Analytics Group Offer Leader at Capgemini, said in a statement.

"Instead of fearing the impacts of AI on humans and society, it is absolutely possible to direct AI towards actively fighting bias against minorities, even correcting human bias existing in our societies today."

The research also showed that only 53 per cent of organisations have a leader who is responsible for ethics of AI systems.

Additionally, governance and accountability for AI, and deploying pragmatic tools and frameworks for AI systems to be developed and used, is coming at a high cost for organisations.

The report titled "AI and the ethical conundrum" noted that while organisations are more ethically aware, progress in implementing ethical AI has been inconsistent.

For example, nearly the same share of executives in 2019 said that they have taken steps on building "fairness" and "auditability" dimensions of their AI systems.

For the 2020 report data points, Capgemini conducted a global consumer and executive survey during April-May 2020.

The consumer survey polled 2,900 consumers in six countries, while the executive survey polled 884 executives from across 10 countries including India.

Capgemini also conducted in-depth interviews with a number of industry executives, academicians, and subject matter experts in the area of ethics in AI, during August-September 2020.