Probe Group becomes first Australian CX provider to achieve ISO 42001 certification

Probe Group has become the first customer experience (CX) service provider in Australia to achieve ISO 42001 certification across all of its brands, giving clients independently audited assurance over how the company deploys AI in its contact centre operations.

The certification covers Probe CX, Convai and Innovior as well as Probe Group's internal enterprise systems, bringing every part of the business under a single AI management and governance framework.

ISO 42001 is the international standard for AI management. It requires organisations to demonstrate that AI risks are assessed, that use is controlled, and that appropriate decision-making authority over AI is in place. The accreditation followed a comprehensive independent audit, the company said.

Probe Group said it began preparing for certification almost two years ago and has maintained an AI Ethics Committee for more than two and a half years.

The company said AI is already operating across its contact centres, underpinning capabilities including automated call transcription, real-time analysis for team leader coaching, quality assurance and frontline fraud detection - flagging suspicious patterns at the close of a call to help clients respond to social engineering risks.

David Buerckner, chief information security and risk officer at Probe Group, said Probe's ISO 42001 accreditation addresses growing customer concerns about how vendors govern and manage AI technologies.

"Everybody is using AI. Our customers want to be working with someone who is using it, and using it responsibly. This ISO 42001 accreditation shows our clients that Probe Group is taking a mature approach to how we are using AI to support them," he said.

"Our clients want the service improvements AI can deliver, but they can't afford to take on the extra unmanaged risk that is so often associated with AI use to get them. Certification means the assurance work has already been done and independently verified, so they get the benefit without having to perform their own assurance."