Your AI strategy runs through a data center.

Among the exit polling to come out of last week’s midterm election, NBC News found about 76% of voters said they would oppose construction of new data centers in their communities, while 56% of voters said AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor in how they cast congressional ballots.  Not that we needed exit polls to confirm that data centers are a lightning rod issue.

Data centers and their relation to AI, however, are an issue that we’ve been thinking a lot about in terms of how corporate AI strategies are intersecting with corporate sustainability communications. Senior Strategist Elana Goldstein goes deep on the topic in CRI’s latest white paper.  As she points out, your AI strategy, by default, runs through a data center.  What does that mean for your sustainability communications?  There is no single right answer, but several issues need careful thought before taking a public position on AI or deciding how to address it in the upcoming reporting and disclosure cycle.