The overwhelming majority of customers won't buy from vendors that can't keep their data safe, according to a recent Cisco study, which found data privacy has become a business imperative and essential to maintaining trust.

Cisco surveyed more than 4,900 privacy, security, and IT professionals across 27 geographies last summer for its Data Privacy Benchmark Study. It found 90% of respondents would not consider products or services that couldn't protect their data.

“With 94% of organizations saying they are reporting one or more privacy-related metrics to their board, and privacy investment rising, with an average budget up 13%, there’s no doubt that privacy continues to grow in importance for organizations, regardless of their size or location,” Cisco Chief Privacy Officer Harvey Jang said in a statement.

Additionally, organizations continue to invest in privacy and its return on investment (ROI) remained high for a third consecutive year. While privacy budgets increased 13% last year to an average of $2.7 million, the estimated ROI is nearly 1.8 times that, the study found.

“We also see privacy growing to be part of the vital skills and core responsibilities for security professionals,” Jang added. “This year’s study confirmed that aligning privacy with security creates financial and maturity advantages compared to other models.” 

Despite increased investment in privacy, over half of respondents expressed concern over the use of data in artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making, according to last year’s Cisco Consumer Privacy study. And because of this, “people are reticent to engage with new technologies,” Jang said.

To build customer trust, 87% of respondents said they set processes in place to ensure automated decision-making is done in accordance with customer expectations, this years' report showed.

“Transparency is particularly important to customers, and organizations need responsible frameworks and governance over their use of personal data, especially when applied in AI,” Robert Waitman, director of Cisco’s privacy office, wrote in a blog post.

Cisco also made efforts to ensure responsive data-related processes and policies. Today, the vendor announced a governance framework — Responsible AI initiative, which is part of its Trust Center. 

“Our Responsible AI Principles include transparency, fairness, accountability, privacy, security, and reliability,” Cisco Webex CTO Anurag Dhingra wrote in a blog post. “Cisco will also participate in AI-related initiatives with other industry leaders, standards committees, and global government agencies.”