Moody’s century-long legacy of upholding trust through integrity continues to guide our use of Artificial Intelligence. As we enter a new era enabled by revolutionary technologies, we will use our AI principles to maintain that trust. The extraordinary productivity gains that AI offers have the potential to transform capital markets and economies globally. We believe these benefits should be fully embraced, while seeking to mitigate risks appropriately. This moment demands a strategy that is both fast and safe. Those key attributes of our AI strategy will allow our customers and colleagues to embrace this era-defining opportunity.
Artificial intelligence is not an idea of the future – it’s a reality today. We support our customers, now, wherever they are in their own AI journey: to solve real problems, to unlock productivity gains and to transform their workflows and operations.
We engage with our customers to understand their needs and to try to resolve any concerns they have. We also listen to all our stakeholders, including investors, bond issuers, policymakers and regulators, to learn about their perspectives, which in turn helps to shape our AI strategy.
Responsible design and use of AI are core tenets of our AI principles. We use and deploy AI tools in line with our values and Moody’s Code of Business Conduct, implementing oversight and controls, mindful of regulatory developments and industry best practices.
We recognize that AI presents certain risks, such as bias and hallucination, and work continuously to mitigate these to the extent possible. Moody’s AI Governance Committee, a subcommittee of our Enterprise Risk Committee, comprised of a key cross-section of internal stakeholders, maintains enterprise-wide governance and a holistic view of our AI systems. Teams developing AI tools have integrated AI governance into their existing processes and procedures.
We will help our customers understand how our AI tools should be used for specified purposes. We will be clear about the capabilities, and limitations, of our AI tools. Customers retain decision-making responsibility at all times and appropriate human oversight will remain critical.
Access to reliable, high-quality data is a foundational necessity for the effective deployment of AI tools. Moody’s proprietary data estate is one of the largest, most comprehensive AI-ready data estates in the industry, with more than a century’s worth of insight and analysis on capital markets and firmographic data on more than 600 million entities.
Safeguarding the integrity and value of our proprietary data is a key element of our AI strategy. Our data assets are the product of significant capital investment, alongside decades of experience and credit expertise. While non-proprietary data may become commoditized as AI develops, proprietary data will continue to underpin the most effective and useful models and systems to assist in decision-making. We serve our customers by enhancing and growing our data coverage, and enforce our proprietary rights in our valuable data estate. Likewise, we respect others’ intellectual property rights in the context of artificial intelligence and expect our customers, business partners, and vendors to do the same.
At the same time, we remain committed to the unique value of human intelligence, for example, in cases where contextual judgement is vital or in making complex choices on marginal cases. In empowering our colleagues with the latest AI technology, we aim to maximize their ability to leverage their analytical experience, helping to differentiate our products and services over the long term.
Helping our customers and employees to use our AI tools safely and securely is key for Moody’s. We continuously work to strengthen our operational resilience, including cybersecurity, and protect our data and that of our customers from loss or misuse.
Expert teams, including our cybersecurity team, review and assess AI tools before releasing them for specified use cases. These processes are overseen by our AI Governance Committee and are subject to challenge by our risk functions. We take these steps carefully but at pace, recognizing that undue inertia may lead to the loss of commercial opportunity. Meanwhile, we rigorously uphold the integrity of our credit ratings and other products as we transition to wider adoption of AI tools.
At Moody’s, we develop our AI tools by testing and refining, and by exploring new ideas and use cases. The technological shifts driven by AI represent a paradigm change for capital markets and the real economy. We expect this trend of progress and innovation to continue.
Nevertheless, we believe that AI will accelerate innovation rather than replace human judgement and ingenuity. Our teams know their customers best. We want them to prioritize customer engagement and innovation in their interests. That’s why we’ve placed AI directly in the hands of our employees since 2023, with thoughtful and appropriate guardrails.
Looking to the years ahead, we are confident that our culture of dynamism will keep delivering value to our customers and the economies they serve.
