The increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into business processes presents organisations with new challenges: How can trust in AI systems be built? What role does generative AI play in Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR)? With these questions in mind, a project outline for an AI-supported assistance system was developed at CReAITech in spring 2024 – in close collaboration with the project coordinator of the medAIcine project, Prof. Michael Reder. The aim of the system is to support data-driven companies in the risk-ethical analysis of use cases and in ensuring adherence to internal compliance guidelines, while taking regulatory requirements into account.

Collaboration and development

In close collaboration with Dr Niina Zuber and Dr Jan Gogoll from the Bavarian Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), the project outline was refined by Dr Christopher Koska, Senior Researcher at CReAITech, and supplemented by an application-oriented concept for practical implementation. Together with the management consultancy dimension2 GmbH and StatUP GmbH, a specialist provider of statistical advice and data science, the project entered the next development phase in the summer of 2024 and a first prototype of the assistance system was built.

Presentation and first test phase

As early as autumn 2024, the alpha release of AIRIES was presented at an event organised by the Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) Lab at Serviceplan’s House of Communication in Munich. At the same time, the testbed phase started with an initial AI pilot project at Frankfurt Airport in cooperation with Fraport AG. Shortly afterwards, the International Statistical Institute (ISI) joined the project and is currently helping to develop AIRIES specifically to promote ethical understanding in statistical literacy and AI.

Recognition and outlook

In December 2024, the project was nominated for the CDR Award in the category ‘responsible innovation’ (shortlist). The prize has been awarded since 2021 by the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW) and Bayern Innovativ GmbH for outstanding projects in the field of Corporate Digital Responsibility.

Project team at the CDR conference at the Bavarian State Representation in Berlin.

The first testbed phase will run until the end of March 2025 and will provide valuable insights for application-oriented research and responsible AI design.