dependability
What It Means
Dependability is how consistently and reliably your AI systems work when you need them to work. It encompasses whether the system is available when users need it, performs correctly under normal conditions, recovers quickly from failures, and can be maintained and updated without major disruptions.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Undependable AI systems create cascading business risks including customer churn, revenue loss, regulatory penalties, and reputation damage. CAIOs must ensure AI dependability because unlike traditional software failures, AI system failures often involve unpredictable behavior that can compound rapidly across business processes and customer interactions.
Real-World Example
A bank's AI-powered fraud detection system that goes offline during peak shopping hours on Black Friday, allowing fraudulent transactions to process unchecked while legitimate customers get blocked by backup systems, resulting in millions in losses and thousands of angry customers calling support centers.
Common Confusion
People often think dependability just means the system doesn't crash, but it's much broader - including how well the AI performs its intended function, how quickly it recovers from problems, and how maintainable it is over time.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare AI, dependability is critical for patient safety and clinical workflow continuity, requiring systems to ma...
Finance: In finance, dependability is critical for trading systems, payment processing, and risk management platforms that must o...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"<of an item> ability to perform as and when required (note 1: includes availability, reliability, recoverability, maintainability, and maintenance support performance, and, in some cases, other characteristics such as durability, safety and security. Note 2: used as a collective term for the time-related quality characteristics of an item)."Source: ISO/IEC_TS_5723:2022(en)
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