A high percentage of Singapore firms are concerned about the ethical use of AI.

The conclusion was part of a global study AI Momentum, Maturity and Models for Success, which was commissioned by Accenture Applied Intelligence, SAS and Intel, and conducted by Forbes Insights.

In the study, 36 percent of Singapore executives said that they have deployed AI-based technologies, and 71 percent noted that they train their technologists in ethics. Meanwhile, 67 percent said that they have an ethics committee to review the use of AI.

The high regard for ethics puts Singapore firms on par with global competition, said the report. Forty-three percent review their AI output at least weekly and 30 percent have a process in place for augmenting or overriding questionable results.

At the same time, Singapore executives trust AI with 65 percent saying that they will depend on AI to make the right predictions and suggest the appropriate actions.

Singapore firms also see a strong link between AI and analytics.

The study noted that 36 percent recognize that analytics play a major or central role in their company's AI efforts, while over half of Singapore executives agreed that AI will significantly reduce repetitive tasks over the next few years.

Sixty-five percent also believed AI will enable them to mine massive volumes of data faster to inform business decisions.

Attitudes toward AI are also positive.

Singapore executives view AI as augmenting the current workforce -- not taking away their jobs.

Seventy-eight percent said that they do not anticipate any impact on jobs due to AI’s implementation, while 61 percent noted that AI is elevating job roles.

The above insights were discussed at Accenture’s recent Responsible AI Roundtable event. It featured Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, managing director and global lead for Responsible AI, Accenture Applied Intelligence; Deborah Rhee Santiago, managing director, Digital & Strategic Offerings – Legal, Accenture; and Lee Joon Seong, managing director, Accenture Applied Intelligence, ASEAN.

This discussion also highlighted the AI Fairness Tool that Accenture pioneered last year, which measures disparate impact, and corrects for predictive parity to achieve equal opportunity, addressing the importance of companies building ethics from the ground up.