What is Automated Decision-Making Technology?

In practice, this term covers systems that score, rank, approve, deny, or route outcomes in ways that affect a person’s access to services, employment, credit, or other opportunities. Compliance teams need to understand whether the system merely supports a human decision or actually drives the outcome, because that distinction often determines whether notice, explanation, contestability, and human review requirements apply.

The concept appears across GDPR discussions of automated individual decision-making, employment and consumer AI governance, and broader risk-management frameworks. It is closely related to requirements for human oversight, algorithmic-discrimination controls, impact assessments, and decision-system governance, especially where the system’s outputs have legal or similarly significant effects.