Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must take responsibility for introducing technologies and best practices that increase transparency and traceability to manage a wide range of social, legal and commercial risks.

Information technology is suffering a trust crisis driven by factors such as misuse of data, opaque and biased algorithms, and counterfeit reality. This is contributing to a reduction in trust in governments and corporations and an increasing likelihood of legislation.

Most technologies and processes used to increase transparency and reduce bias are immature, and even when available they are often underutilized.

Trends such as democratization in areas such as citizen artificial intelligence (AI) and citizen data science increase the risk of organizations unknowingly deploying systems with opaque, biased or illegal behavior.

Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders assessing strategic technology trends for their impact and potential for competitive advantage should:

Identify where transparency and traceability are weak in your organization, and define a plan to improve the situation by educating staff and applying industry best practices, including auditability, explainability, accountability, algorithm validation and testing, openness, and redress.

Deploy processes and technologies to identify and avoid risks such as algorithmic bias in AI systems and to ensure appropriate use of personal data. Monitor emerging technologies in the transparency and traceability domain to ensure they're adopted as soon as they're mature enough to deliver benefits.

Establish training and review processes before deploying any democratized tools that enable nontechnical staff to develop systems involving AI or data science. Review the use of citizen AI and data science tools every six months.

How can you tailor your education and career to take advantage of this huge technology trend?