In 2023, only 22% of surveyed representatives from businesses in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway said that they had operationalized formal ethical guidelines for AI. 49% had not even started developing guidelines. In a global study on AI maturity it was found that companies who succeed with AI investments, are among all designing solutions responsibly from the start. As Nordic businesses mature their AI capabilities and as the regulatory landscape evolves, ethical and responsible AI practices can therefore be assumed to increase as well. The rise of generative AI has also increased the interest in ensuring ethical and responsible practices.
Based on the collective findings in this report, the below activities have been identified to help increase adoption of ethical and responsible AI in the Nordic region. These are primarily aimed at businesses developing and using AI, as well as Nordic decision-makers with ability to help enable these outcomes:
Move from focusing on reactive compliance to proactive development of capabilities that enables ethical and responsible development and use of AI: There is greater value to be captured from ensuring that there are capabilities in place to develop, deploy and use AI responsibly than only avoiding non-compliance. Additionally, as the regulatory landscape is still evolving, companies will be better equipped to meet new requirements with governance, policies, risk management, tools, and training already in place that help align AI solutions with different regulatory frameworks.
Increase board and c-suite awareness of AI opportunities and risks to obtain their sponsorship of ethical and responsible AI initiatives: Ethical and responsible AI is a highly strategic question since it is centered around balancing value from AI innovation with risks. The board and c-suite plays an important role to successfully create and operationalize a strategy for ethical and responsible AI across the entire organization. However, they may lack sufficient understanding about AI and AI risks, and can therefore be dependent on upskilling and support from relevant subject matter experts.
Upskill and educate teams on the risks of AI and the benefits of ensuring ethical and responsible use of AI: Operationalizing ethical and responsible AI will involve teams across the organization, including for example IT, legal, risk, marketing, procurement, HR, and product teams. These teams need to be upskilled and educated in what value will be generated from ensuring that AI risks are properly mitigated, and what their responsibilities are in this process.
Develop industry guidelines and methodologies on ethical and responsible AI, and share successful examples: Establishing standardized practices could help increase the adoption rate of ethical and responsible AI across the Nordics, also equipping organizations with the necessary capabilities to comply with evolving regulatory frameworks. Sharing successful examples can promote collaboration among industries and foster a collective effort to address challenges and learn from others’ experiences, ultimately advancing ethical and responsible AI practices across sectors.
Enable ecosystem collaboration along the AI value chain and incorporate ethical and responsible AI requirements: Each organization needs to consider their role in the AI value chain and collaborate with their upstream and downstream partners to help ensure AI risks are properly mitigated. Transparency is critical to show partners robust evidence that their AI solution is compliant with regulations and aligned with ethical and responsible frameworks. There is also value in collaborating within and between nations and industries in the Nordics on initiatives that aims at increasing adoption of ethical and responsible AI, as this can contribute to increased visibility, capability transfer and overall, more effectively increase adoption.
Nations collaborating on regulatory frameworks for AI necessitates a parallel need for organizational collaboration. As Nordic companies become more AI mature, it is likely that there will be an increased focus on ensuring ethical and responsible AI. Broader societal concerns, such as fostering innovation, security, workforce impact, and environmental considerations, cut across industries and company sizes and therefore require broad ecosystem collaboration.
The insights presented in this report also shows that companies in the Nordics are still in the early stages of fully implementing ethical and responsible AI practices. Consequently, numerous organizations in the Nordics are likely to encounter common challenges as they strive to establish guidelines for AI and put them into operation. Facilitating collaboration within the Nordic AI ecosystem can enable organizations to leverage the experience of their peers, both within and beyond their respective industries. This could for example be achieved through creating incentives to share knowledge, data, best practice, learnings, and failures. By fostering collaboration between and within nations and industries, organizations in the Nordic region can build on the many common values, and potentially develop a more cohesive and effective approach to ethical and responsible AI.