Editorial — New technology can help organizations deliver services, process requests and communicate faster. Yet automation is not a substitute for responsibility. When a system makes an error, people affected by that error should know how to seek an explanation and correction.
Understand the limits of the tool
A promising demonstration may not reflect the difficult conditions of everyday work. Organizations should evaluate accuracy, privacy, accessibility and operational risk before using automated tools for consequential tasks. Human review needs a genuine opportunity to challenge questionable outputs.
Give users understandable choices
People deserve to know when information is being collected and how decisions can be reviewed. Clear policies are especially important where customers, employees or residents cannot easily avoid a digital service. Transparency also helps staff use the technology with greater confidence.
Innovation should make services more trustworthy and humane. The ability to automate a task does not remove the duty to govern it responsibly.
