NICE Brings First Code of Ethics to the RPA Industry for the Greater Global Good of Society

We are proud to be the first RPA player to formalize a Robo-Ethical framework, with 5 key principles, guiding the responsible and ethical practice of building and deploying process bots

Our vision at NICE is Automation for the People, a focus and inspiration that has shaped our 18-year reputation of creating RPA solutions that augment human potential and talent.  Every day, we tackle the importance of creating process automation solutions that benefit not only organizations, their employees and their customers, but people and society at large.

From recommending music playlists to analyzing applications for jobs or credit, algorithms and automated systems play a large and rapidly expanding role in our lives. These systems help to speed up business processes, enhance accuracy and improve efficiency, in turn enabling companies to offer a faster, more convenient and more personalized customer experience.

But as artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation continue to grow, so do fears about the negative impact they could have on people’s lives. Consider the instance of an algorithm trained to automate the review of resumes for software engineering roles. What if it is trained on a gender-biased data set and ‘learns’ to disqualify candidates based on their gender?

Another example: when you apply for a home loan by phone or face to face, the human loan officer will usually explain to you why your application was rejected. That might not be the case when you apply online and an algorithm decides. Without that transparency, you cannot be sure that the decision was a fair one, nor can you learn how to adjust your credit behavior in the future.

The time has come to tackle these large-scale concerns by practically guiding the RPA industry at large to embrace solid ethical practices, ensuring that the development and deployment of robotics will not negatively impact humans.  Our starting point for the code of ethics is our purpose, which is to augment human potential with robotics. The ethical framework comprises five guiding principles that we embrace in the design and development of our robots. These principles are embedded into our RPA platform and will help ensure our technology is used for the benefit of all. 

1. Robots must be designed for positive impact

NICE recognizes that automation could disrupt the labor market on a macro and micro scale. Understanding that technology is changing our world in complex ways, we will create and use robots in ways that make positive contributions. Every project that involves robots should have at least one positive rationale clearly defined with respect to societal, economic, and environmental impact.

2. Robots must be designed to be free from biased decision-making

Our robots do not consider personal attributes, such as color, religion, sex, gender, age, or any other protected status. NICE technology doesn’t evaluate processes or generate recommendations based on any personal characteristics or group identities. We recommend that training algorithms are evaluated and tested periodically to ensure they are free from bias.

3. Robots must be designed to minimize the risk of individual harm

To avoid harm to people, humans should choose whether and how to delegate decisions to robots. The algorithms, processes, and decisions embedded within robots should be transparent, with the ability to explain conclusions with unambiguous rationale. Accordingly, humans must be able to audit a robot’s processes and decisions. If a robot causes harm to an individual, a human must be able to intervene to redress the system and prevent future offense. Our AI doesn’t make any decisions, but rather brings all relevant data to the user so they can make effective and efficient decisions.

4. Robots must be trained and function on verified data sources

Robots should only act based upon verified data from known and trusted sources. Data sources used for training algorithms should be maintained with the ability to reference the original source. To ensure poor data sets do not compromise our systems and recommendations, we do not use third-party data as a source for our AI. The data we use is self-generated, not informed by any non-verified external source.

5. Robots must be designed with governance and control

Humans should be informed of a system’s capabilities and limitations. A robotics platform should be designed to protect against abuse of power and illegal access by limiting, proactively monitoring, and authenticating any access to the platform and every type of edit action in the system. At any moment, a customer has visibility into every component of our system, with complete governance and control over what each robot should do and what it does.

Unlocking possibilities for humans with Robo-Ethics

A strong set of Robo-Ethics is essential in harnessing the power of AI, RPA and other intelligent automation technologies to improve our lives. Ethical guidelines and a clear moral compass for organizations and societies to follow, pave the way for sustainable and successful rollouts of the technology, and help to soothe societal anxiety about the impact of robots and machines on humans.

As the Attended Automation leader and the most experienced automation vendor in the market, NICE aims to lead the way in holding itself and the RPA industry accountable for the responsible and transparent design and deployment of robotic workers. We encourage our partners and customers to adopt the framework, too. We remain committed to thoughtful consideration of the ethical concerns that powerful technology raises, and to ensuring that our solutions are used for good.