Artificial intelligence and corporate social responsibility can strengthen anti-corruption efforts

In previous years, Canada’s ranking among the top 10 countries on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index gave the impression that Canada was a country relatively clean of corruption.

However, Canada has slipped in the rankings in recent years, coming in at No. 11 in 2020 and 13 in 2021. This gradual decline has been attributed to, among other things, Canada’s limited enforcement of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention, an anti-corruption convention that requires countries to criminalize the bribery of foreign public officials.

Bribery of foreign public officials is of particular concern for Canada, considering the tendency for Canadian multinationals to engage in bribery and corruption in the Global South where corruption is rampant and anti-bribery enforcement is lax.

Given that this is an ongoing concern, how then can companies conduct business responsibly? In addition to legislative instruments, such as the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, the OECD convention and the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act, I suggest that companies should explore how an integrated corporate social responsibility (CSR) and artificial intelligence (AI) approach can help mitigate corruption risks.

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