AI has introduced many valuable innovations — and it is becoming increasingly common in the workplace. In 2024, 72% of organizations reported using AI for at least one business function, with the percentage of those using generative AI nearly doubling. Much of this is because many businesses expect AI to be a major disruptor and driver of change.
While these are exciting times for many leaders, one recurring concern in the age of AI is the potential loss of integrity that can result from its use. This has been especially prevalent in education, where concerns over students using AI to write essays or complete homework isn’t just perceived as dishonest — it could also harm their critical thinking skills.
As leaders, finding a way to balance the use of AI while maintaining integrity so you can keep the trust of those you serve is critical. The right strategies and culture are vital for making this happen.
Integrity In Data Collection
Data collection and use is a core component of AI, both for analytics-focused models and for LLMs. Because of this, maintaining integrity begins with how data is used and collected. To deliver accurate and unbiased responses, AI models must be supplied with ethical and unbiased data.
Otherwise, organizations risk receiving erroneous or unethical recommendations from their AI tools. Left unchecked, this could harm everything from deciding who gets hired for a job to the recommendations you offer customers.
Integrity in data also requires setting standards for ethical data collection. It’s one thing to train AI using your own internal data. But when you look to external sources, you must be mindful of what information is truly public online, and what is subjected to privacy regulations. Several organizations have been sued, fined or suspended because of privacy violations that put confidential information at risk.
Integrity In Content Creation
Content creation is another area where leaders must provide clear guidance for maintaining integrity in the age of AI. As Jeff Lorey, Head of Customer Happiness at AI Detector explains, “Too often, when content creation is left entirely up to AI, it can spread misinformation — even accidentally. Unsupervised AI may resort to half truths or unsubstantiated claims to try to go viral. Content created by AI always needs human oversight, as well as tools that can help detect undesirable AI use. Leaders have the responsibility to ensure their communication and content is accurate and actually matches their brand’s personality. People start to lose trust when they see your content as generic or misleading fluff that was created in a few seconds by AI.”
Because of this, leaders must set clear guidelines for how generative AI can and should be used. Your organization might decide that it’s okay to use AI for idea generation or basic outlining, but the final product must be created by human workers.
Clearly communicating expectations for AI use is an important first step, but you should also enact accountability measures. For example, AI detection tools can help identify undesirable AI content and help your team humanize its work. This way, the content that is actually sent out to your audience is worthy of their trust.
Integrity In Transparency
Ethical AI use requires full transparency at all levels regarding how AI is used. A culture of transparency and ethical AI use doesn’t happen by accident. It only happens when everyone has an understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable.
Creating this culture requires clear guidelines from organizational leaders. As Martin Rowinski writes for Inc, “Establish clear ethical guidelines for how AI will be used within your organization. Build diverse teams to oversee AI implementation, as varied perspectives can help identify and mitigate potential blind spots. By prioritizing ethical AI practices, leaders can maintain trust with employees, customers and stakeholders.”
Your ethical AI practices should establish standards for what tools are or aren’t acceptable, as well as what type of human oversight will be involved for each AI use case. These standards should be fully transparent to employees, so they can better understand and be held accountable for their use of AI. But they should also be transparent to your customers and other stakeholders.
You should be open about how and when you use AI in your business operations so that customers don’t think you’re hiding anything. This openness can also help you collect valuable feedback that allows you to adjust how you use AI.
For example, a Gartner survey found that 64% of customers don’t want companies to use AI for customer service. When you are transparent with your customers, they will be transparent with you, and provide the insights you need to better serve them — which should always be the top priority.
Integrity Is Worth the Effort
Your efforts to ensure integrity in the workplace are critical for building and maintaining trust with your customers in an increasingly distrustful era. AI is a valuable tool, but when used improperly, it can result in erroneous data, misleading content and other issues that harm your customers and those you lead.
By helping your team understand AI’s use as a tool and maintaining a transparent system for using AI, you can successfully navigate this new tech frontier.