Designing AI Systems That Customers Won't Hate

Privacy concerns get most of the attention from tech skeptics, but powerful predictive algorithms can generate serious resistance by threatening consumer autonomy. The nexus of big data analytics, machine learning, and AI may be the brightest spot in the global economy right now. McKinsey Global Research estimates that the use of AI will add as much as $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030.1 The noneconomic benefits to humankind will be equally dramatic, leading to a world that is safer (by reducing destructive human error) and offers people a better quality of life (by reducing the time they spend on tedious tasks such as driving and shopping). Even if the coming automation-driven disruption of labor markets is as serious as many fear, we are still, on balance, likely to be better off than today. But not everyone is convinced.