How to ensure your AI solutions deliver consistent, trustworthy results
The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools across various industries has garnered significant interest and sparked discussions among professionals.
The third annual Future of Professionals Report from the Thomson Reuters Institute reinforces this perspective, showing that respondents see AI as a pivotal force for the future of professional practices and methodologies. A striking 80% of respondents anticipate that AI will have a high or transformational influence on their professional activities within the next five years.
With the fast-paced changes seen in today’s professional environment, how do you understand and evaluate the accuracy and reliability of this technology?
Here are five critical ingredients that go into developing reliable and accurate AI.
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Domain and technical expertise
Professional-grade AI you can trust
High-quality data
AI technology requires a foundation of high-quality, authoritative data that is unbiased and representative of professionals’ real-world scenarios. And it is crucial that the output from AI tools is transparent and auditable, otherwise it could be difficult if not impossible to evaluate it for accuracy.
One concern many professionals have with AI is that its output reasoning is not always evident. This transparency will become especially important as agentic AI, which enables AI tools to perform multi-step processes without additional instructions at each stage, becomes more prominent in workflows. To use agentic AI to its fullest potential, professionals must have confidence in both the underlying mechanisms driving the technology and those mechanisms’ outputs.
Domain and technical expertise
Involving domain and technical experts in the testing and validation of AI systems is crucial for tailoring these systems to end users’ specific requirements. Both types of experts are instrumental in developing and guiding the training data, as well as in substantiating the performance of machine learning algorithms. Their deep understanding of the domain and data attributes allows these experts to identify and explain the sources of errors, facilitating targeted improvements in algorithm tuning and development.
Security and training
For AI to be truly reliable across various industries, it must be developed and deployed with stringent security measures such as encryption, authentication, and regular auditing. Implementing robust security measures protects highly confidential data from unauthorized access and manipulation. A secure AI environment not only boosts confidence in the technology but also enhances its effectiveness. This ensures consistent performance and compliance with regulatory standards across applications. Additionally, AI tools must be supported by comprehensive training and ongoing assistance for users from the provider. This allows end users to maintain their skills and maximize the effectiveness of the product.
Ethics
Ethical considerations, particularly regarding data privacy and the avoidance of bias, must be rigorously addressed to build confidence among professionals and clients. Ethics guide the creation of algorithms that fairly and responsibly handle data, preventing biases and ensuring inclusivity. By adhering to principles of transparency and accountability, ethical AI fosters trust among users. When ethical considerations are prioritized, AI developers can create systems that perform efficiently, respect user privacy, and promote fairness, making them more dependable and acceptable to a broader audience.
The key ingredient
Each of the previous sections mentions a human component. While AI offers significant capabilities, human involvement is essential throughout its development, refinement, and application to fully realize its potential. Human expertise defines AI’s objectives, validates outputs, ensures ethical application, and aligns its functions with real-world goals.
Professional-grade AI you can trust
Accuracy and reliability are the foundations of professional-grade AI technology. CoCounsel, the AI assistant from Thomson Reuters, is the result of our commitment to trusted innovation. CoCounsel is built on market-leading, verified content databases and understands professional standards, enabling it to provide reliable results quickly. Most importantly, it features end-to-end encryption, ensuring your data is always private and secure.
When innovation opens the door to exciting possibilities, professionals can rely on us to provide trusted solutions backed by decades of subject matter and technological expertise.
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