On the ROI of AI Ethics and Governance Investments: From Loss Aversion to Value Generation
Heather Domin, Francesca Rossi, Brian Goehring, Marianna Ganapini, Nicholas Berente, and Marialena Bevilacqua
California Management Review, 2024
AI presents an opportunity for growth and productivity improvements for organizations around the world, and at this point, many recognize its tremendous potential. However, the ethical issues that arise with the AI technologies in terms of privacy, bias, explainability, misinformation, and their impact on societal structures such as the job market, education, and government, present legitimate concerns. Whether they build or use AI, companies increasingly realize that they cannot simply develop and use this technology without careful attention to how to identify the relevant ethics issues and build governance mechanisms to ensure that they are mitigated. This paper provides a novel framework for how organizations should determine, justify, and evaluate investments in AI ethics and governance.