How technology is defining the future of corporate social responsibility

A major constituent of the present proliferation in every sector – technology has enabled the corporate sector to grow exponentially. Taking into account the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of an organization, the integration of technology has changed the way it works.

A gradual alteration that is coming in this sphere with the use of technology is defining its future trends. Technology infusion is bringing to forefront the need for better monitoring, implementation, and reporting.

Currently, irregular handling of work consumes a large amount of time, effort and resource to make CSR reports. Generating these reports from the data collected over the entire year becomes a task bigger than CSR itself. The forthcoming state-of-the-art technologies can aid the process by streamlining it. Changing the face of reporting will give more time to focus on the task, and hence, a better output of CSR activities.

1. Stakeholders get real-time information
   Looking at overflowing data reports from the past year is certainly tiresome. Real-time data reports on the other hand, are easy to read, analyze and reflect upon. Getting their hands on data simultaneously with the CSR activities happening helps stakeholders manage and scrutinize the tasks for better output.
2. New and improved data distribution channels
   The communication channels, which can now be referred to as predecessors are being taken over by their better versions. Using videos, interactive infographics, and even virtual reality, the CSR efforts are being taken to a whole new level. The engagement that came with traditional methods has multiplied with the introduction of new methods.
3. Better sustainability
   The entire process from the inventory, supply chain to the final output has become more coherent with the intervention of technology. Several software are enabling organizations to have a compact and comprehensive picture of their efforts. This is helping them connect the dots, and strengthen the process. Overall, this is resulting in better sustainability in the processes, and creating a fresh approach for the management to device a way for improving the existing CSR systems.
4. Big data, bigger results
   Giving technology an upper hand in the process is working well for the CSR world. With big data, CSR reporting has transformed into its better self, and the data collected is being put to use in ways allowing organizations to study the correlation between the activities and their output. Complex statistics earlier have now become an aiding factor in facilitating the corporate world to evaluate how externalities can be monetized.
5. Artificial intelligence is the new real
   Perhaps the most tangible science yet to be fully discovered, artificial intelligence is laying the groundwork for the future of CSR. AI tools with cognitive abilities helping draw conclusions from unstructured data by rendering it proper arrangement, are implementing sustainability in the process. A complete usage of these tools is still in the cards waiting to be shown.

Where reporting CSR activities using websites and portals has brought people closer to these causes, new methodologies are certainly helping create a better, sustainable world to manage it and amplify the efforts being put.