Why Ethics Isn’t Optional in Digital Tech
It’s easy to think of ethics as something formal—codes of conduct, compliance requirements, or something you only need to worry about when things go wrong. But in digital technology, ethics is everywhere. It’s in the design choices we make, the data we collect, the algorithms we train, and the systems we build. It shapes who benefits from our work—and who gets left out.
As professionals, we’re making decisions every day that have ethical implications, whether we realise it or not. And in an age of increasing complexity, polarisation, and mistrust, ethics isn't just a nice-to-have—it’s a critical skill. It’s about knowing when and how to speak up, how to apply values in grey areas, and how to lead with integrity. It’s also about recognising our own blind spots and fallibility—because sometimes, the hardest ethical questions are the ones we don’t even realise we’re facing.
That’s why we’re offering a new workshop series on Ethics - the first will be Professional and Business Ethics. This three-hour interactive workshop is designed to sharpen your ethical instincts and provide practical tools you can use every day. Led by Jane Arnott MNZM, one of Aotearoa’s foremost ethics experts, the session explores real-world dilemmas, equips you with a decision-making framework, and helps you apply the ITP Code of Ethics to the kinds of scenarios that don’t come with easy answers.
Jane brings decades of experience in ethics education and consulting across industries—from engineering to healthcare to AI. She’s the Director of The Ethics Conversation, an Adjunct Research Fellow in Ethical Leadership at Victoria University of Wellington, and holds credentials in both professional and AI ethics.
Whether you’re in a technical role, leading a team, or just want to build more confidence in navigating ethical decisions, this course is for you. I interviewed Jane recently to find out what this workshop is all about, her background working in the ethics space and to understand a little bit more on why we should all be learning about Ethics - especially in the age of AI.
It’s not about knowing all the answers. It’s about knowing how to ask the right questions. Find out more about the workshops here.
