Risk used to take time to move through. It had both a decision-making time frame and review time frame, then re-evaluated for changes if necessary. Slow decision makers are no longer needed. Autonomous systems make instantaneous decisions on their own.
The New Shape of Uncertainty
This new way of seeing how to view risk isn’t readily accepted; there are still many people who associate risk with types of categories that used to exist:
(1) Financial Exposure;
(2) Compliance Gaps;
(3) Operational Issues.
These types of risks still hold some degree of importance. However, autonomous systems provide a new form of uncertainty.
The Visibility Dilemma
Consider an AI-based price management engine that adjusts price points every few seconds, based on market demand signals. That’s efficient, but what happens when that engine learns that the right price is unfair? There was no human operator that programmed the system with this knowledge, yet the price management engine achieves unfair pricing.
Check out: Data Sovereignty and Localisation (Focus on Emerging Markets)
Governance is challenged. Traditional governance controls assume visibility to make effective decisions. Autonomous systems reduce that visibility to allow for real-time decision-making to be made faster than the recollection of the decision-maker to develop an oversight structure, thus creating a gap. As with any gap creator, the gap will continue to grow.
Designing Risk Into the System
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