Pega helps businesses mitigate risk with industry’s first AI transparency controls

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – September 27, 2017 – Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced the industry’s first capability that gives organizations control over the transparency of their artificial intelligence (AI) customer engagement models. The latest release of the Pega® Customer Decision Hub will enable users to more easily and safely deploy AI algorithms based on transparency thresholds within their business. This first-ever T-Switch will help companies mitigate potential risks and maintain regulatory compliance while providing differentiated experiences to their customers.

Businesses are increasingly deploying AI to gain better insights into customer needs and provide more personalized service, sales, and marketing. However not all AI models are built with the levels of transparency they may need to fully understand how AI makes its decisions – a trait that’s particularly critical in highly regulated industries. While some opaque AI algorithms may drive powerful performance, the complex logic behind these ‘black boxes’ can’t be fully explained – a tradeoff that becomes more problematic when the model causes unintended actions. Further raising the stakes next May, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates that businesses must be able to explain the logic behind AI models using European customer data to make decisions or risk massive fines up to four percent of global revenues for non-compliance.

As part of the AI-powered Pega Customer Decision Hub, the T-Switch will allow organizations to set the appropriate thresholds for AI transparency or opaqueness. Businesses will be able to predefine these levels for each AI model using a simple sliding scale from one (most opaque) to five (most transparent). The transparency scores will help guide business users to build AI systems using the right models that meet their organization’s transparency requirements while still delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Business users will be able to control the transparency of their AI based on the models they choose to deploy to drive a desired outcome. For example, it is relatively low risk to use an opaque model for image recognition that helps flag older content assets still using outdated branding. Conversely, for financial institutions under strict regulations for the kinds of loans they offer customers, marketers may require highly transparent AI models to ensure they can demonstrate the resulting product offers are appropriate for the financial needs for each individual.

Pega Customer Decision Hub users will access the T-Switch and all other Pega AI tools in a newly centralized Business Control Center for AI. This allows users to create, import, adjust, and monitor their AI models to drive better business outcomes in a single dashboard. This includes models built using:

• Pega Predictive Analytics Director to rapidly develop models that accurately predict customer behaviors
• Pega Adaptive Decision Manager to automatically adjust models on the fly based on customer actions
• Pega Text Analytics for text classification, sentiment analysis, and intent detection
• Any third-party AI models available via PMML

The power of the Pega Customer Decision Hub works in tandem with Pega’s suite of CRM applications for marketing, sales, and customer service to anticipate customer needs and provide highly contextual brand experiences for each individual customer.

The T-Swich capabilities will be available by the end of October with the release of the newest version of the; Pega Customer Decision Hub. For more information on AI transparency, visit www.pega.com/artificial-intelligence-business

Quotes & Commentary

“With increasing amounts of regulations, nearly any global organization needs to ensure its AI systems provide the appropriate levels of transparency that allow businesses to explain how they use customer data,” said Dr. Rob Walker, vice president, decision management, Pegasystems. “The T-Switch, built into the AI-powered Pega Customer Decision Hub, ensures organizations maintain compliance while leveraging the power of AI to provide exceptional experiences that increases customer satisfaction and the bottom line.”

Supporting Resources

• Keynote address: Dr. Rob Walker on “AI in customer engagement: balancing risk and reward” at PegaWorld 2017
• Whitepaper: Artificial Intelligence in Business: Balancing Risk and Reward
• eBook: Pega Customer Decision Hub – What’s inside the always-on brain