Ethics by Design

Embedding ethics into our products.

Ethics by Design is the intentional process of embedding our ethical and humane use guiding principles in the design, development, and delivery of Salesforce software and solutions, particularly when it comes to working with data and artificial intelligence.

einstein looking to the horizon with binoculars

We strive to empower our employees, partners, and Trailblazers to consider technology’s potential benefits and harms so we can build tools and features that help us navigate uncertainty, increase trust, and positively impact the world.

This process of Ethics by Design unites diverse perspectives to consider the unintended consequences of our technology and creatively problem-solve to mitigate those risks and minimize product misuse that could compromise the safety and success of our customers and all stakeholders.

At Salesforce, Ethics by Design informs our teams’ creation of trusted artificial intelligence (AI) products, as well as efforts in responsible marketing — both of which empower our customers and users to use data and AI responsibly.

As we enter into the age of fast-developing AI technologies, the risks — and opportunities — grow. That’s why we work proactively with our product and policy teams to design, develop, and deploy our AI products with trust at the core. Through operationalizing our responsible generative AI guidelines through model safety improvements, product and feature guardrails, and policy safeguards, we work to ensure our AI technologies address known risks like issues of accuracy, bias and toxicity, privacy and security, and data provenance.

We also support a human-centric approach to customer service, sales, and commerce, and prevent the reinforcement of implicit biases and harmful verbiage in our technical content and code through our inclusive product language initiative while building more inclusive features for all.

Consider unintended consequences for intentional innovation.

One way we enable our internal teams to consider all possible outcomes when designing and developing products and features is through Consequence Scanning, a responsible innovation methodology developed by U.K.-based think tank Doteveryone.

This process takes the form of a workshop and focuses on uniting a diverse set of perspectives to pinpoint the consequences of the technology being created — positive and negative, intended and unintended. It then provides the opportunity for the group to creatively problem-solve and take ownership to address any identified risks.

Making progress through multi stakeholder partnerships.

To learn more about the process of Ethics by Design, read the “Ethics by Design” report. Salesforce is a Steering Committee member of the World Economic Forum’s Responsible Use of Technology Project. This joint report examines how trust and ethics add business value and illustrates what an organizational approach to the responsible use of technology looks like.