The National Retail Federation (NRF) has introduced a comprehensive framework, titled Principles for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, to guide the ethical integration and strategic planning of AI in the retail sector.
Developed by NRF’s Centre for Digital Risk & Innovation, which serves as the focal point for NRF’s engagement on technology issues that have significant policy and risk management implications for the global retail industry, this framework is designed to foster innovation and responsible AI use while building and maintaining customer trust.
The NRF’s principles are categorised into four key areas:
Governance and Risk Management: Retailers should develop strong internal governance of AI tools and capabilities as a foundational basis for managing risks and ensuring that AI delivers expected benefits.
Customer Engagement and Trust: Retailers should be transparent about their uses of AI that have a legal or similarly significant effect on a customer establish safeguards to prevent unlawful discrimination against protected classes of individuals, and align their governance of consumer-facing AI applications with existing internal privacy, cybersecurity and other data governance policies.
Workforce Applications and Use: Retailers should engage in ongoing oversight and review of AI applications that may directly impact employees or that are used by the workforce to support business needs.
Business Partner Accountability: Retailers should establish clear guidelines and expectations for business partners that are providing AI tools, data sets and services.
NRF Center for Digital Risk & Innovation Executive Director Christian Beckner said, “As retailers of all sizes continue to expand their AI capabilities, these general principles for the use of AI are increasingly critical to the industry.”
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