Ethics, AI and roofing contractors? Is this a thing?

MCS Influencer Thea Dudley says that, in the digital era of business, it is up to us to keep evolving with it while maintaining our humanity.

Tech has discovered our industry. The sheer number of software companies offering artificial intelligence geared to our industry is staggering. And we are leveraging it to our benefit. Accounts payable, accounts receivable, payment portals, proposals, construction management software, construction design, information modeling, document management, financial management, communication, employee management, training, productivity, any area of your company, there is AI that will help make it more efficient.

We are all adopting it, but at what cost? Not the cost to integrate and use the software, but what compromises are we making in our quest to not get left behind and integrate all this wonderful AI into our operations?

Employees get nervous when companies start talking about incorporating AI to “streamline processes” fearing for their jobs. Not to mention cybersecurity and cybercrime rarely come into conversation when we get excited about what we could do if we incorporated more tech into our workspace until you get hacked, and your company and customer sensitive information is compromised. AI can also introduce bias, think GPTChat or Co-pilot or any other chatbot that gathers information from the internet.  

What can a company do to take advantage of AI without exposing its employees or customers to harm?  Enter ethical AI integration. The term has come up in conversation several times and not being a tech nerd, I reached out to a techie friend for clarification.

“Ethical AI in construction means using technology to enhance efficiency while keeping transparency, trust and human judgment at the core of every decision. Furthermore, it requires ensuring that the AI tools used are not introducing any hidden biases that could alter or negatively impact relationships with end customers/stakeholders.” shared Nauman Hafeez, co-founder of NetNow, a digital credit management platform.

Great, how do I do that? Are there questions I should ask to figure out if I am working with a company that has “flexible morals or ethics” or one that will help safeguard my company’s reputation with internal and external customers? Back to “phone a friend” for more information.

A few questions to get you started:

1. What models is the AI trained on?
2. What systems and protocols the company has in place for managing privacy and “hallucinations” and bias. Apparently, the metaverse is not immune to some very human fallacies.
3. How much control the human has to modify the AI setting and ensure the AI is only introduced where needed.

That will get the conversation started. The digital era for business is evolving rapidly, it is up to us to keep evolving with it while maintaining our humanity.