Corporates have been warned that a “mad rush” to implement artificial intelligence (AI) could risk ethical failings that parallel those made at The Post Office over flawed accounting technology.

Flora Page KC, chair of the Institute of Business Ethics and a barrister who represented sub-postmasters during the Horizon software scandal inquiry, issued the warning as part of a keynote speech for Global Ethics Day.

Appearing at the annual conference of the ICAEW, a UK professional accountancy body, Page said Post Office leaders had been in a “state of panic” to install a new accounting system to help offset a looming loss of income from new processes.

“Leaders were desperate to automate in order to move into other areas of business,” she said.

“This has resonance today—I suspect many boards are in a panic about how AI will affect their businesses.

“Some will be in a mad rush to adopt new tech. Others will be frozen in panic, not sure which way to jump.

“That may be the even more dangerous position because, meanwhile, their staff will be going on Copilot or ChatGPT to help them do their work anyway. The genie is out of the bottle.

“So it’s important to stay calm and take thoughtful decisions.”

No accounting for it

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 as a result of flaws in the Horizon accounting system. The result was bankruptcies, family breakdowns, stress-related illness, suicides and prison terms.

A public inquiry was begun in 2020, but the issue rose to national prominence when an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, was aired in January last year.

Volume 1 of the inquiry’s report was published in July and focused on the human impact of the scandal. Subsequent reports will also focus on governance at The Post Office during the key period.

The Institute of Directors said in a report that Post Office board members were “excessively passive” and “absorbed in a culture of mistrust”. The conclusion propelled the IoD to launch its own investigation examining the role of non-executives in UK business.

Page notes in her speech that, at the time Horizon was adopted, there were no sub-postmasters on the Post Office board and contracts signed ensured Fujitsu, the software supplier, was “not contractually obliged to make sure Horizon was fit for purpose”.

No part of the Horizon system allowed sub-postmasters to challenge their accounts. Their only recourse was a helpline.

Page says the Post Office board treated sub-postmasters as “the enemy”, instead of “listening and learning from their feedback”. She adds the board also “focused obsessively on reputation management—better seen to do the right thing instead of doing the right thing.”

Managers and leaders, Page says, failed to “imagine a human face” on the people affected by their decisions.

“It’s hard to do this when your workplace culture doesn’t encourage it. This means that ethical business leaders and professionals have to think all the time about creating an ethical work culture.” She added: “Ethics isn’t for one day, or any number of days: it’s for everyone, every day.”