Oracle found out that business executives regard bots as a method to assist their companies in achieving corporate sustainability objectives, based on a survey conducted by Savanta.

The study, conducted in 15 countries with 11,005 respondents, examines consumer and business leaders’ attitudes and behaviors towards sustainability, as well as the role and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI) and bots in environmental, societal, and governance (ESG) efforts.

People trust bots more regarding corporate sustainability objectives

Senior VP and chief marketing officer at Oracle, Juergen Lindner gave important insights regarding the study:

“Pressure for results is high, careers are short, environmental and social factors are divisive, and it’s human nature to focus on what you can control. But what if this wasn’t down to human nature? What if managing the intersection of sustainability and business performance wasn’t another problem for executives to tackle? What role should people and machines play in managing factors that not only impact the business, but the health of society and our planet?”

According to an Oracle survey conducted in collaboration with Pamela Rucker, Harvard Professional Development CIO advisor and instructor, nearly all company executives (88%) prioritize technology-enabled organizations that help promote corporate sustainability and social issues.

The majority of business executives (94%) indicated that they need to leverage technology now in order to support ESG efforts. Their top tasks include verifying data (48%), gathering data automatically from various locations (47%), preparing and changing goals based on performance (44%), and automating reports and analysis (44%).

In the field of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, Oracle’s research discovered that 43 percent of business executives thought bots were better at collecting data without error, 42 percent felt they were better at making unbiased judgments, and 41 percent thought they were superior at predicting future results. The study also revealed that 93 percent of company CEOs would trust a robot to make corporate sustainability and social choices rather than a human.

However, the participants of the survey felt that people had a critical role to play because humans are better at putting in place changes and making strategic decisions than bots. They added that while humans were still required for implementing change based on input (48%), teaching others about the context required to make judgments (46%), making context-informed strategic decisions (42%), and pivoting in response to change (35%).

The worldwide upheaval caused by the pandemic over the past two years, according to Oracle, has accelerated people’s desire for immediate action on sustainability and social concerns. Traditional business metrics take precedence over managing ESG factors, but bots are seen as being better equipped than humans to address corporate sustainability issues.