Since 2019, the Australian Department for Industry, Science and Resources has been striving to make the nation a leader in “safe and responsible” artificial intelligence (AI). Key to this is a voluntary framework based on eight AI ethics principles, including “human-centred values”, “fairness” and “transparency and explainability”. Every subsequent piece of national guidance on AI has spun off these eight principles, imploring business, government and schools to put them into practice. But these voluntary principles have no real hold on organisations that develop and deploy AI systems.

New research from Accenture, from a survey of 2,000 executives across 12 countries and 15 industries, found that three-in-four (74%) organizations have seen investments in generative AI and automation meet or exceed expectations, with 63% planning to increase their efforts and further strengthen these capabilities by 2026.