Mastercard’s ethical approach to governing AI

Mastercard, the global payments company, is known as a leader in privacy by design; senior leaders promote data responsibility and employees follow strict ethical guidelines and robust frameworks to manage and protect data. The company views AI as a significant part of its strategy going forward, using it to fight fraud, improve the consumer payment experience, increase efficiencies and decrease costs in back-end systems. When Mastercard created its AI Garage in 2018, its vision was to become an AI powerhouse. Realizing the special attention AI development efforts need, several leaders in the organization co-created the AI Governance Council and a framework to structure the company’s approach to governing AI. The application of this framework led to several significant decisions, including walking away from two acquisitions. Mastercard believes that the combination of a solid Privacy by Design process and additional governance specific to AI – “the AI governance framework” – is the right approach for the long term to maintain consumer trust. Yet, while being a trusted guardian of data with this robust AI governance framework, Mastercard also faces the costs of its high accountability stance – forcing it to make appropriate organizational and managerial choices as well as ensuring that AI governance does not result in a reduction in innovation. The speed of AI integration and need for ethics in data practices will only increase. What does this mean for Mastercard’s business model, profitability and innovation capabilities in the future?