Why Radical Honesty And Building Trust Are Essential To AI's Future

Dirk Wakeham is the President and CEO of Realpage, a leader in property management technology.

Current social media trends suggest that AI will either steal jobs or end the world. TikTok and Instagram posts warn, “Enjoy your last real year of meaningful work,” and joke that Terminator 2 was a documentary. The recent call by AI leaders to slow down development has only amplified the doomsayers.

What drives these dreadful predictions? Tech giants promised utopia for two decades while harvesting data, trapping users in walled gardens and disregarding social fallout in the AI era. Public cynicism was inevitable.​

The tech industry can solve its problems only by embracing a rarely used strategy: radical honesty and building trust. ​

Building trust means a company and its executives must do what they say and be transparent in their vision for AI. If it’s meant to replace humans, then they should say it. If it’s meant to work with humans and make their jobs easier, they must say that, too.

Technology companies must commit to this if they want to survive public mistrust and regulatory crackdowns. ​​

Winning Back Trust

AI didn’t create tech’s trust issue; it merely amplified it, and its rapid growth has only deepened the mistrust.

For years, software companies hid behind opaque terms of service and grew more secretive. Now, as they ask for trust in autonomous decisions and generative media, the public is pushing back.​​

Building trust and radical honesty are essential as these tech companies roll out AI, because prioritizing ethics and consumer privacy allows users to understand what this technology means for them.

Building trust often means implementing responsible AI best practices, which starts with the technology itself. Then, demonstrating cultural change that is fully integrated across organizations will speak louder than policy statements.​

Trust As An Operating System

To live this at Realpage, we instituted the five principles to ensure our AI inspires trust:​