For many businesses, customer data is now a vital asset and the key to competitive advantage. When unleashed by the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), it can help them make better decisions, boost productivity and engage customers in exponentially smarter ways.

Right now, much of the data fuelling AI-powered tools comes from individuals supplying companies with personal information in return for convenience and more personalized experiences. For the most part, such individuals don’t reap financial benefits from the exercise — but what if they had the option to do just that? What happens to the business-critical supply of user data if users get to decide whom they sell to, and at what price?

These are questions that blockchain authority Jennifer Zhu Scott is passionate about finding answers for. Zhu Scott is the founding principal at Radian Partners, a firm that targets private investments in AI and blockchain, and their applications to climate-change-related projects such as carbon-credit trading. Salesforce recently caught up with her to find out more.

Ensuring a flow of rich customer data

Zhu Scott believes that to ensure a good data flow — and improve data quality — companies need to recognize the potential of the individual data ownership market.

“The capabilities to collect AI-ready data are embedded in the leading technology companies’ DNA,” she said. “But for businesses outside the technology sector, that kind of sophisticated data collection isn’t necessarily part of their organizational construct. For companies like these who aren’t collecting data effectively, there’s a huge opportunity here to create a market so they can purchase data based on their exact business needs.”

She described how some companies are already developing protocols for decentralized marketplaces that aim to enable individuals to manage and trade their personal data in these kinds of ways. Based on blockchain technology, such platforms offer people tokens with economic value as an incentive for this exchange.

Individual data ownership restores trust

For Zhu Scott, blockchain technology offers the most secure and efficient way to develop an individual data ownership and trade ecosystem.

“The challenges of the data economy include data breaches and bad actors using data to target individuals for crimes or false news,” she said. “As a result, many people have concerns about the ways their personal data is being collected and used. Research shows that customers will not do business with companies they do not trust with their data.”

In Zhu Scott’s view, blockchain — a digital ledger stored on multiple computers in a public or private network — offers an alternative. The data records or “blocks” it contains can’t be changed or deleted by an individual network member. Instead, these are verified and managed by all members, using automation and shared governance protocols.

“The infrastructure ensures that any data shared across the network is accessible only to qualified network members and that updating processes are more tamper-resistant and transparent,” she said. “That can make a blockchain-based network a very secure place to transact.”

Unleashing AI’s potential

Zhu Scott believes that enabling people to monetize their online footprint can deliver value to governments as well as businesses and the individual citizens themselves.

“In the longer term, such data income could even become a source for a universal basic income in a pervasive AI economy. This kind of approach can help to fulfill the potential of emerging technologies to increase wellbeing and lift society overall,” she said.

“Used thoughtfully in ways like these, AI and blockchain are powerful tools that can broaden access to opportunity and offer solutions to some of society’s most pressing problems.”