Digital Transformation in the AI Era: The Challenge of Trust and the Role of Humans
As AI becomes increasingly involved in everyday work and decision-making, digital transformation raises a new question: How can organizations harness the power of technology while preserving human trust, accountability, and judgment?
Every year, October 10 marks Vietnam's National Digital Transformation Day. In 2026, the official theme, “From Architecture, Platforms, and Data to Tangible Results and More Effective National Governance,” highlights a shift toward a new phase of digital transformation, where practical outcomes and the real value delivered by technology are taking center stage.
At the same time, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how people work, analyze information, and make decisions. Against this backdrop, the question is no longer simply how much technology a business has adopted. Instead, it is increasingly about how far we can trust technology and what role humans should play in decisions that increasingly involve AI.
Digital Transformation: From Technology Adoption to Building Trust
AI can analyze vast amounts of data, support forecasting, automate processes, and generate recommendations at speeds that humans alone could hardly achieve. Yet, as technology becomes more capable, the question of Digital Trust becomes increasingly important.
For businesses, Digital Trust goes beyond cybersecurity. Trust also depends on how organizations collect and use data, how transparent their systems are, whether information can be verified, and who takes responsibility when technology produces unexpected or undesirable outcomes.
Technology creates possibilities. Trust determines whether those possibilities are truly embraced.
Digital Trust: Building a Foundation of Trust for Digital Transformation
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in business operations, Digital Trust needs to be recognized as an essential part of organizational governance.
Using AI to support decision-making also raises several important questions: Can the input data be trusted? Could the results be biased? Do users understand the limitations of the tools they rely on? What information needs to be verified? And who should be held accountable if a decision leads to negative consequences?
This is also why Ethical AI – the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence – is receiving growing attention in digital transformation. Ethical AI is not about restricting the use of technology. Rather, it is about enabling organizations to use AI purposefully, responsibly, and with appropriate oversight, in ways that align with their values.
Ethical AI: Responsible Digital Transformation in the AI Era
One of the risks of increasingly convenient AI tools is that people may gradually shift from using AI to support their thinking to relying on it to do the thinking and evaluation for them. This distinction is particularly important when decisions directly affect people.
AI can assist with screening job applicants, analyzing employee performance, identifying customer behavior patterns, or recommending business strategies. However, data does not always capture the full context of a situation, and an AI model cannot always fully assess the social, emotional, or ethical implications of a decision.
“Use AI to expand thinking, not outsource judgement.”
Digital Transformation and the Irreplaceable Role of Humans
This does not mean that humans and AI are on opposing sides. On the contrary, the greatest value may come from combining their respective strengths while clearly defining where technology can provide support and where human responsibility must remain.
AI can expand analytical capabilities. Humans ask the right questions.
AI can identify patterns in data. Humans understand the context.
AI can suggest multiple options. Humans consider their potential impacts.
AI can support decision-making. But humans must remain accountable for the final decisions.
This is where Digital Trust, Ethical AI, and leadership capabilities come together.
In the AI era, a leader's digital competence will no longer be measured simply by their ability to use new tools. More importantly, it will be reflected in their ability to recognize when AI should be used, when questions need to be raised, when information must be verified, and when human judgment should remain decisive.
Digital Transformation Needs Technology – But Must Go Beyond It
Vietnam's National Digital Transformation Day 2026 emphasizes the need to move beyond architecture, platforms, and data toward tangible results. For businesses, these results should not be measured solely by the number of digitized processes or AI tools deployed.
Successful digital transformation should aim to build an organization where technology is powerful enough to enhance human capabilities, systems are trustworthy enough for people to use with confidence, and individuals have the skills and judgment to apply technology responsibly.
In the AI era, the competitive advantage may not necessarily belong to organizations that use AI the most. Instead, it may belong to those that achieve the strongest balance between technological capabilities and the qualities that should remain fundamentally human: judgment, accountability, trust, and humanity.
References
Government News – “National Digital Transformation Day 2026: From Architecture, Platforms, and Data to Tangible Results” (September 17, 2026).
Decision No. 505/QD-TTg dated April 22, 2022, on the establishment of National Digital Transformation Day.
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