We wrote about the apparent conflict between AI and corporate climate goals at the end of last year and that tension is big news now. But there is another way companies use AI that may not be fully compatible with corporate ESG/sustainability goals that isn’t in the spotlight. Last month, I blogged about a McKinsey report about how leading companies use generative AI:
“Generative AI is helping cut costs and pump up revenue… Companies most commonly use it to support marketing strategy, personalize marketing, identify and prioritize sales leads, create designs for services and products, review research, and speed simulation and testing…”
Last week, CNN reported on the same concept:
“Companies are increasingly leveraging customer data, often derived from loyalty programs, in coordination with machine-learning models to uniquely price goods and services based on an individual’s willingness to pay. The end goal: ‘Get you to buy more items, buy the same items again or to spend more on the same items,’ said [Shikha Jain, a lead partner in the North American consumer and retail division at the consultancy firm Simon-Kucher.]”
Implementing AI to boost sales could be detrimental to your company’s sustainability targets and goals. The carbon management aspect of AI is known and obvious, but much less recognized are sustainability implications of AI-driven sales growth strategies: selling more things and stuff means using more resources and asking more of suppliers. The “push for more faster” could well conflict with – and may be a time of reckoning for – sustainability initiatives and achievements.
ESG leaders, staff and advisors: There is usually tension between increasing production/throughput and sustainability to begin with. A jump in customer demand resulting from AI sales/marketing tactics adds pressure: the company may turn its attention to fulfilling the new demand (taking attention and resources from sustainability efforts), push out AI sales initiatives more widely and cement a business-as-usual mentality (as far as sustainability goes) backed by business growth. To help ensure sustainability doesn’t fall off the radar, sustainability needs a place at the table when the company discusses AI plans, strategies and expectations. Be prepared, however: keeping a sustainability perspective in this context (and excitement) probably won’t be popular, but it is necessary.
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