Working Together to Drive Inclusive Digital Transformation for Business and Society

On November 21 and 22, Saudi Arabia will host the fifteenth G20 Leaders’ Summit. Each year in preparation for the Summit various engagement groups are formed to develop policy recommendations to the G20 countries.   

G20 countries represent 85% of the world’s total economic output, two thirds of the world’s population, and 75% of international trade. It is no exaggeration to say that the recommendations put forward can change – and positively impact – the lives of millions of people around the world. 

It is therefore an honor and a great privilege to have served as co-chair of the B20 Digitalization Taskforce and to have worked side-by-side with the 90 other business leaders across different G20 countries that participated in the process.  For background, the B20 is the engagement group that acts as the voice of the private sector at the G20. Digitalization being one of the B20’s focus areas, the B20 Digitalization Taskforce was formed with the objective of driving inclusive digital transformation for business and society.   

It is against this backdrop that the B20 Digitalization Taskforce published the B20 Digitalization Taskforce policy paper, which proposes four recommendations to G20 countries to help advance digital transformation globally.   Below I give an overview of the recommendations and highlight some of the policies that we believe are integral to advancing digital transformation.   

Recommendation 1: Enable and Support Resilient Digital Infrastructure 

The Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated the impact of a lack of digital preparedness on businesses, economies, and communities. At the onset of the outbreak, reports suggested a fourfold rise in cybercrimes and data breaches,1 which exposed the vulnerability of digital infrastructures around the world.  

In a new normal driven by rapid digital transformation, the B20 Digitalization Taskforce encourages G20 countries to develop robust, resilient digital infrastructure by fostering the cybersecurity readiness of individuals, small business, large enterprises, and public institutions, and by promoting investment in human capital in the field of cybersecurity.  Specific recommended policy actions include to lay the regulatory foundations, to boost investment to reduce connectivity gaps, to ensure robust global value chains for technology, and to incentivize affordable digital access via services, networks and devices.        

At Microsoft, we believe that meeting the cybersecurity challenges of a digitally enabled and always connected world is a shared responsibility between the public and private sectors and between governments around the world. If citizens and economies are to reap the benefits of emerging technologies, it is vital for all stakeholders to work together to ensure that these technologies are safe, secure, and reliable.   

One important example of this is the Paris Call for Trust and Security in the Cyberspace. Microsoft is a strong proponent of it and participates in it, along with governments and other private enterprises around the world.  The principles in the Paris Call address real-world cybersecurity challenges in a joint and collaborative effort across sectors and industries.   

Another example is the Microsoft Airband Initiative, an effort focused on reducing the connectivity gap and promoting investment in affordable and quality digital infrastructure. Through this initiative, Microsoft partners with internet service providers to bring the power of the internet to rural communities using proven technology such as TV White Spaces.     

On the topic of resilient digital infrastructure and increased digital access, it is important to highlight the transformative role that the hyper-scale cloud plays. Not only is the hyper-scale cloud one of the most effective ways to reduce the gaps in connectivity and to increase access to services and information, it is also a cybersecurity game changer.  When made readily available, cloud-based services and infrastructure are fantastic tools to help level the playing field and are great enablers of innovation and new opportunities.     

Recommendation 2: Support for the Healthy Development and Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

AI is the amplification of human ingenuity. It is therefore difficult to think of an industry that does not stand to benefit from the broad transformative potential of this technology.   

For the full benefit of AI to be realized, the B20 Digitalization Taskforce recommends G20 countries to support the healthy development and adoption of AI wherever possible by creating a favorable and trust-inducing regulatory environment; educating businesses, government, and society on the technology; and advancing AI benefits for all.  One of the policy actions suggested by the B20 Digitalization Taskforce is for the G20 to harmonize national action plans and to facilitate cross border data flow while respecting and promoting applicable legal frameworks on data privacy and security.  The B20 Digitalization Taskforce specifically provides that such harmonization of national action plans should be based on the voluntary OECD AI principles endorsed by G20 leaders and should build upon the work of the OECD AI Policy Observatory to strengthen the multidisciplinary, evidence-based, and multi-stakeholder dialogue around analysis of public policy on AI.    

At Microsoft, we believe that AI should be made available to every person and every institution.  The ability to transfer digital information across borders is essential to make that happen and contributes greatly to economic growth, innovation, and opportunity. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the international flow of data contributed 2.8 trillion U.S. dollars to the global economy in 2014,2 an amount that can increase to 11 trillion U.S. dollars by 2025.3   

Cross border data flows is especially empowering for small and medium sized business, as it expands their geographic reach and enables them to compete more effectively against larger businesses.   It also can result in decreased costs. Without the free flow of data, for example, you often see increased costs on local storage and local processing. These costs disproportionately impact smaller enterprises and their ability to scale.   

In the G20 Osaka Leaders’ Declaration4 last year, most of the G20 leaders expressly recognized that cross border data flows, information, and ideas generates higher productivity, greater innovation, and improved sustainable development. However, there was also an acknowledgment of the resulting challenges relating to private data protection, intellectual property rights, and security. There was also a recognition that these challenges will have to be addressed to facilitate data free flow and to establish trust.  Indeed, the establishment of trust is a key pillar to the free flow of data.       

Another important factor to highlight as foundational to the advancement of AI is alignment on the adoption of trustworthy AI principles – like the voluntary OECD AI principles – to govern the deployment and development of AI.    

At Microsoft, we are committed to the advancement of AI driven by responsible and ethical principles  that put people first.  Microsoft’s responsible AI principles include: (1) Fairness: AI systems should treat people fairly, (2) Reliability and Safety: AI systems should perform reliably and safely, (3) Privacy and Security: AI systems should be secure and respect privacy, (4) Inclusiveness: AI systems should empower everyone and engage people, (5) Transparency: AI systems should be understandable, and (6) Accountability: people should be accountable for AI systems.   

Recommendation 3: Lay the Foundations for Smart Cities 

Smart cities are not a new concept, although it is only recently that we have made the technological advancements necessary to develop and build truly intelligent living and working spaces. We have witnessed throughout 2020 the importance and increasing reliance on digital technologies in our daily lives, and the ways in which cities and communities that were not adapted or prepared for a digital world were disrupted by global events. 

To enable smart cities to thrive, the B20 Digitalization Taskforce recommends that the G20 support smart cities’ building blocks and foster greater social acceptance of smart cities globally.  Similar to AI, this includes facilitating cross border data flow while respecting and promoting applicable legal frameworks on data privacy and security.  It also includes working towards increasing the social acceptance of smart cities by promoting the use of data to meet the population’s need for smart solutions and fostering the application of smart city technology in all relevant fields.    

At Microsoft, we believe that smart cities will improve government systems, and ultimately lead to more engaged and connected citizens, improved service delivery, and a greater standard of living for all.  Smart cities and enabling technologies will play an even more pivotal role in our post-pandemic world as an enabler of improved, adaptable, and reactive citizen experiences. Inclusion of augmented reality solutions, increased reliance on robotics, and automation across industry sectors within smart cities may minimize the impact of future global disruption in the event that the pandemic continues for a prolonged period or arises again in the future.   

Access to and free flow of data with trust is integral to the success of smart cities and AI and so many other transformative and enabling technologies.  To fully realize the benefit of data, we need to develop the ability to share data across geographic and organizational boundaries in a way that is safe, secure and trustworthy, and allows the data to be used effectively.   

To help propel the conversation around how the world uses and shares data forward, Microsoft launched the Open Data Campaign. Through this campaign, Microsoft published new principles that will guide how Microsoft approaches sharing data with others and also committed to develop 20 new collaborations built around shared data by 2022, including by working with leading organizations in the new open data movement like the Open Data Institute and the Governance Lab at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering.  Also, Microsoft announced that it would lead by example by making its Microsoft societal impact initiatives “open by default,” beginning with sharing data on broadband access from its Airband Initiative and combining it with data from others to help accelerate improvements in broadband connectivity.   

Recommendation 4: Drive Digital Inclusion and Grow Digital Skills 

For global citizens to take full advantage of new and emerging digital technologies, they must be equipped with the knowledge and skills required of a digital world.  Towards this end, the B20 Digitalization Taskforce recommends G20 countries to drive digital inclusion and grow digital skills by overcoming the digital skills divide, supporting and advancing innovative methods for digital education, and providing more digital job opportunities to women.  Policy actions that are recommended include the introduction and advancement of innovative methods for digital education by reforming education systems to offer future work skills and the development of national digital education strategies to bridge the gap between job market requirements and education offers.     

At Microsoft, we believe that we can only achieve our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more if technology is accessible to all and if individuals have the skills to make use of technology to improve their lives.   

As a result, and as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched the Microsoft Global Skilling Initiative earlier this year. The initiative aims to help 25 million people around the world access and acquire the skills needed to flourish in a digitally enabled business world.  The initiative will be grounded in three areas of activity: (1) the use of data to identify in-demand jobs and the skills needed to fill them; (2) free access to learning paths and content to help people develop the skills these positions require; and (3) low-cost certifications and free job-seeking tools to help people who develop these skills pursue new jobs. 

Although the largest skills initiative in its history, Microsoft recognizes that no company can come close to closing the skills gaps alone.  Sustained progress will require a renewed partnership between stakeholders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and thus Microsoft has committed to supporting these efforts as well.   

Conclusion 

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all in this together. Our collective journey towards digital transformation is a shared responsibility between civil society, governments, the private sector, and the technical community.   

My participation in the B20 Digitalization Taskforce has only magnified to me the important role that the different segments of society can play and how integral consensus-based and multi-stakeholder partnerships are to ensure that the benefits of these new transformative technologies are realized by all.  Although my contribution is a mere drop in the digital transformation bucket, I am humbled and deeply honored to have worked alongside my esteemed colleagues and to be given the opportunity to be part of this extremely thoughtful and impactful process.