How AI and robotics can transform CSR

In his 2011 book charting the history of corporate social responsibility, the academic and futurist Wayne Visser divided CSR into five ages: greed, philanthropy, marketing, management, and responsibility. Each age related to a particular stage for companies: defensive, charitable, promotional, strategic, and systemic. As we enter 2018 I am convinced that a new age of CSR has begun. It is known as the intelligence age and the corresponding stage is the cognitive era, when machines are deployed to radically transform and improve CSR processes. While ethics, sustainability, the multi-stakeholder model, and CSR have gained in popularity, problems with the management, effectiveness, need, and efficacy impede progress.