The era of AI is well and truly here - with huge implications for businesses across all sectors.

These are systems that can both interpret natural language and also learn to find the right answers without them having been programmed.

This innovation comes with a heightened level of risk. Businesses urgently need to recognise this new risk profile and rethink their approach to the risks and controls relating to this technology in a structured way.

This is essential for two main reasons:

1. AI will allow systems and businesses to become much more complex (to the point that it exceeds the capacity of the human mind to comprehend. The nature of this increased complexity is also self-perpetuating and although it might appear as simplification, it could well introduce 'technical debt'. Embedding controls in a system to mitigate technical dect after its implementation is typically far more costly than designing in the right controls at the start. Opportunities to build risk and contorl consideration by design will inevitably diminish over time and hence now is an optimal time to consider taking a positive and dynamic approach to building in control.

2. The use of such advanced technologies will become material for many organisations, possibly sooner than anyone expects. When the time arrives it will not be possible to get the right controls in place overnight and have the capability to manage the risks effectively, or to provide assurance. Hence it is key for governance, risk and compliance practices and capabilities to develop alongside the evolution of the usage of such technologies.

 

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AI Risk and Controls Matrix