Our most recent breakfast roundtable event delved into the relationship between sustainability and AI and why organisations are utilising it or shying away from AI adoption entirely.

With emerging AI technologies offering businesses opportunities to save tremendous amounts of time and money by automating workflows and processes, there are still questions about the sustainability of what has quickly become the biggest trend in tech.

Reliance on energy-sapping data centres and ethical questions around generative AI are two massive concerns which are stopping many businesses from adopting new ways of working, especially for those who are concerned it may disrupt them from meeting their ESG goals and pledges.

These were the main points that fuelled our breakfast roundtable and as we were joined by professionals from across a number of industries, the session generated some brilliant insight and even raised some more questions, which we’re delighted to share with you in our round-up.

Battling paranoia and getting buy-in

The biggest hurdle stopping businesses from embracing the cost and time-saving potential of AI is reluctance from board and C-suite level professionals to buy into emerging AI technologies completely.

Many within these positions believe the unknowns surrounding these new technologies pose too much of a risk to adopt them, with fears that current teams will resist the application of AI due to possible headcount reductions, along with concerns about the implications that AI may have regarding GDPR.

The reality is if they’re implemented correctly and with the support of their tech and data teams, they’d see that some AI applications contain almost no risk and offer the opportunity to drastically reduce time spent within data processes.

The difficulty for those looking to utilise AI is being able to communicate this to senior leadership teams, while not relying on overly technical explanations. Often these conversations are lost in translation and leadership teams are left perplexed and unsure, leading to a greater sense of uncertainty.

Regulation commitment being driven from the outside

One key aspect that was touched on during the session was that organisations often rely on external regulatory bodies to ensure they’re utilising AI in an ethical and sustainable way.

While this may not seem like a hurdle, it’s crucial to understand that by doing so, some organisations are putting themselves in a precarious position. If they are found to be using AI and the data in ways that breach regulations, such as allowing it to process data, such as emails, full names and addresses without legal justification, they’ll immediately face fines.

In an ideal world, organisations should have team members who are able to monitor and track how their processes match up against emerging regulations, especially with the EU’s AI Act coming into effect soon which will be monitoring and regulating the use of more advanced AI tools, such as those used to scan candidate’s CVs and job applications.

Data centres and sustainable considerations

To be able to implement generative AI, a vast amount of storage and processing power is required, and these are renowned for requiring a huge amount of maintenance and cooling to ensure they don’t overheat, further adding to their carbon footprints. However, organisations are investing in and building data centres without considering this fact.

This has resulted in huge energy sustainability concerns, especially with the number of companies investing in AI growing month by month.

Teams need to be able to implement these new data infrastructures while also understanding the environmental impact that comes along with them and realising that their carbon footprint could increase exponentially. Ideally, they should be looking to generate their own renewable energy sources to power these data centres, such as utilising solar panels and wind turbines, as these centres are often built on greenfield sites.

Unfortunately, it appears that this may not be the current thought process for many organisations, as we’re seeing green mandates being gradually rolled back across a breadth of industries.

Final thoughts

This session was incredibly engaging, and we found our audience was eager to take this topic even further. As such, we’re looking to host a follow-up event on sustainability and AI later this summer to see how things are changing amidst growing pressures to meet shareholder and stakeholder expectations.

With generative AI capable of hyper-personalisation, powering automation and tailoring designs, understanding its limitations and drawbacks is crucial to ensuring that it doesn’t affect your ESG pledges.

If you’re interested in attending this event, reach out to Sinead Killalea at sinead@deltragroup.com, Chris Brown at chris@deltragroup.com or Josh Kelly at josh.kelly@deltragroup.com.