You are driving fast, in a hurry.
Ahead of you is a red light, just before a pedestrian crossing, and an empty street.
No cars. No people. No sound. The perceived risk is zero, yet the rule is absolute.
Do you stop, or do you keep going?
That red light reflects how many compliance systems still operate today. They continue to signal “stop” even when the road ahead has changed. In a world that moves faster than regulation, business needs reasonable rules to survive in an unreasonable environment. Rules must not only look good on paper; they must still make sense in practice.
When governance becomes mechanical, it no longer protects integrity; it begins to protect itself. This is where ethical intelligence begins. It is the ability to understand the meaning behind the rule. It helps leaders see when compliance genuinely safeguards integrity and when it merely repeats a habit. It is not about breaking the rules; it is about breaking biases and asking whether they still serve their purpose.
Artificial intelligence now appears at that same intersection.
It does not replace ethical judgment; it expands it.
AI can read the environment, detect patterns, and anticipate risks with a speed and precision no human can match.
As we explored at the Business at OECD in Harnessing AI for Integrity (2025), technology can strengthen transparency, reduce unnecessary red tape, streamline rules, and elevate corporate compliance from a reactive function to a predictive capability.
Yet even the most advanced systems reflect the ethics of those who design them. Without ethical intelligence, AI automates bias instead of breaking it. It amplifies what it finds, whether integrity or ambiguity, coherence or contradiction. With an ethical compass, AI becomes a multiplier of trust.
In this context, good governance is not about control. It is about good sense. It connects integrity with performance and resilience with responsibility. When these elements align, companies do not simply comply; they build trust that lasts. They learn, adapt, and improve without losing their ethical direction.
This principle lies at the core of our Call to Action Letter, Upholding Integrity and Compliance Amidst Global Uncertainty (Business at OECD, 2025), which urges companies to keep integrity functions close to decision-making rather than isolated as formal controls.
It is reaffirmed in the Zero Corruption Manifesto, which calls for treating zero corruption as if it were the 18th SDG and invites business leaders and policymakers to turn integrity into capability and competitiveness, positioning it as a driver of performance rather than a constraint.
To make this vision operational, integrity must shape how organisations plan, decide, and allocate resources. This is the rationale behind the Compliance Footprint, a framework that evaluates how deeply integrity is embedded in the industrial plan. It examines whether ethical principles influence strategic priorities, investment choices, procurement models, supply chain governance, and the incentives that guide leadership behaviour. When integrity leaves a visible mark on these decisions, it becomes a capability. When it does not, it remains a declaration.
This approach reflects what I call the Good Governance Equation, where performance is a function of integrity, resilience, and quality, all integrated and enhanced by technology. It moves compliance from a policing mindset to a strategic function, one that sits inside the chain of command, close to the decisions that determine the organisation’s direction. When compliance enters the decision flow rather than observing it from afar, rules stop being constraints and start becoming enablers.
Boards have a central responsibility in this transition. They shape expectations, define risk appetite, and decide whether integrity is a cost or a competitive advantage. A board that integrates ethical intelligence into its oversight and strategic discussions builds an organisation capable of navigating complexity with clarity rather than fear. A board that treats integrity as an afterthought builds vulnerabilities.
Education and communication are the real enablers of this shift. As highlighted in Shaping the Values for a Sustainable Future (Business at OECD, 2023), ethics must be learned, practiced, and shared, not simply declared. Corporate culture evolves through consistency, by turning ethical commitments into visible and coherent behaviour. Every decision is a message. Every message is a moral act.
As highlighted in our upcoming BIAC policy paper Talk Integrity: How Corporate Communication Drives the Fight Against Corruption, communication is a strategic tool to reinforce business integrity. But real impact requires a shift in paradigm: moving from conventional corporate messaging to unconventional communication that speaks to the brain, engages the gut, and resonates with the heart. Integrity becomes credible only when it reaches all three levels — rational, instinctive, and emotional — creating messages that people not only understand, but also believe and act upon.
Now let us return to that red light.
It is still there, but it is smart.
It reads the context, interprets data, and interacts with human judgment.
It no longer commands; it collaborates.
This is what happens when ethical and artificial intelligence work together. Rules become dynamic, systems become responsive, and decisions become truly responsible. The smartest red light is not the one that always stops us. It is the one that knows when to let us cross.
Article: Nicola Allocca – Chair, Business at OECD (BIAC) Integrity & Anti-Corruption Committee
Source: INmagazine No. 40
For Other Issues: INmagazine
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of the Ethics and Reputation Society.