Originally published in GoDaddy's 2024 Sustainability Report

Responsible AI

Staying ahead of the curve means constantly evolving both the technology and also how we use it.

As evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML), agentic AI, GenAI, and other similar tools (collectively, AI) continue to shape the future, GoDaddy is moving right alongside these transformative technologies to better serve entrepreneurs worldwide. We’re committed to using AI responsibly and ethically, ensuring it advances our mission of helping business owners succeed while creating meaningful value for their businesses.

GoDaddy aims to harness AI to inspire creativity and save time and help entrepreneurs everywhere grow their business. By using these tools thoughtfully, we’re empowering both our customers and employees to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Integrating AI

To us, responsible AI means leveraging all forms of AI in a safe, trustworthy, and ethical manner. As these technologies become increasingly prevalent, we’re working to address potential risks like algorithmic bias and misinformation, while ensuring we’re advancing opportunities for our business. We’ve put measures in place to guide the design, development, and deployment of AI, ensuring it’s used responsibly and in alignment with our core values.

Our responsible AI approach includes strategies for mitigating potential risks, such as identifying potentially inaccurate, misleading, or sensitive information and implementing controls where needed. We regularly update our methodologies to ensure they align with GoDaddy’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, and we take proactive steps to minimize the risk of bias and maximize accuracy.

At GoDaddy, we thrive on a culture of innovation, creativity, collaboration, and continuous learning. That’s why we offer technical AI-related training and workshops to empower our employees and fuel their innovative thinking. We prioritize open communication and cross-team collaboration, leading to breakthroughs that help solve complex challenges. As AI technologies evolve, we stay vigilant about the risks associated with GenAI, including misinformation and algorithmic bias. Our AI and ML Governance Council plays a key role in overseeing these efforts, ensuring proper guardrails are in place for responsible and ethical AI use.

AI is central to our culture of innovation, and we carefully vet all partnerships we pursue. Our due diligence process involves evaluating potential opportunities to enhance customer experience and business operations while evaluating risks. We work with our Legal, Information Technology (IT), and Risk Teams to conduct thorough assessments, focusing on alignment with our ethical standards, data privacy, compliance with regulations, and performance reliability. You can read more about our Responsible AI policies here.

AI for GoDaddy’s Employees

While we leverage AI to optimize processes externally for our customers, we increasingly focus on using AI internally to improve efficiency,innovation, and productivity. For example, AI helps us optimize code, identify bugs, and streamline development processes. In 2023, we launched an AI coding assistant to aid developers in writing code faster, reducing effort by quickly cycling through code lines, suggesting functions, and allowing developers to decide what to accept or refine.

GoDaddy Content as a Service, our internal AI tool, is designed to enhance employee productivity while protecting data. This bespoke AI tool provides access to a wide range of AI models and enables employees to ask questions, select different models for specific tasks, and even perform coding and privacy adjustments. Specialized "companions" within the tool are tailored to assist with specific workflows, offering targeted support. This technology serves as a valuable review tool, boosting both technical and non-technical employees and enabling everyone to polish their ideas and maximize productivity.

We believe in empowering our employees with the skills to effectively use AI, and we’ve taken steps to ensure they have access to the tools and training they need. From frequent AI newsletters to a variety of GenAI training, we provide a variety of resources to improve digital literacy and make AI accessible for all.

AI for GoDaddy’s Customers

By integrating AI into our products, services, and customer care, we’re helping boost efficiency and accuracy of customer support routing, allowing us to meet our customers' needs faster and more effectively. While AI helps streamline many of the processes, like our Natural Language Processing technology as part of our proprietary Large Language Model (LLM) described in the Customer Experience section (page 12), GoDaddy Guides are always available, offering personalized support and expert assistance when needed. This blend of AI and human expertise helps ensure our customers have the tools and support they need to succeed.

Our Guides have access to a Guide Assist Bot Interface, which pulls information from our vast catalog of help articles and front of site to help Guides to better assist our customers. GoDaddy also provides customers with a free, curated AI Prompt Library with customizable prompts to boost their business.

To help save small business owners time in growing and establishing their online presence, we include GoDaddy Airo® when a customer registers a domain name with GoDaddy. GoDaddy Airo makes leveraging the power of AI easier for anyone wanting to start a business or take their existing one to the next level. Learn more about the key features of GoDaddy Airo here.

AI EDUCATION WITH EMPOWER BY GODADDY

As part of our Empower by GoDaddy program, in September 2024, GoDaddy hosted an AI for Small Business Summit, bringing together entrepreneurs to discuss practical ways to integrate AI into their businesses. By supporting GoDaddy's mission to empower entrepreneurs everywhere, the summit helped equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in the digital age, all while fostering a sense of community and providing networking opportunities.

Additionally in 2024, Empower by GoDaddy made significant strides in integrating AI education across the program, including supporting communities through providing access to cutting- edge technology and resources. This involved the introduction of a course on GenAI, which provided participants with foundational knowledge about AI technologies and their practical applications in business. Complemented by an on-demand webinar that built on the introductory content, the course ensured entrepreneurs could learn at their own pace and revisit the material as needed.

• An impressive 96% of entrepreneurs who completed the course "Boost your business with GenAI" would recommend it to a friend or colleague.

To learn more, read our 2024 Sustainability Report.

About This Report

This GoDaddy 2024 Sustainability Report details our progress toward our corporate sustainability goals, strategies, and initiatives in support of our overarching corporate mission and values. Unless otherwise noted, this report reflects our corporate sustainability performance across our global operations covering the fiscal year period from January 1 to December 31, 2024. To demonstrate our commitment to transparent communication regarding our sustainability progress, we routinely share updates through our website and our annual Sustainability Report. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback on this report by contacting ESG@GoDaddy.com.

This report references the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, includes select Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics for the Internet Media and Services sector, and the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). We also disclose our contributions and progress toward priority UN SDGs. For additional information on how we align with these frameworks and key indicators demonstrating our sustainability performance, please refer to the Frameworks & Metrics section.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and tools to succeed online. GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers, sell their products and services, and manage their work. Our mission is to give our customers the tools, insights and the people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com.

About GoDaddy for Good

GoDaddy focuses on making opportunity more inclusive for all in the communities where we work, live and play across the globe. We rally behind inclusive entrepreneurship and other critical local needs that empower people to succeed through philanthropic and in-kind donations, volunteerism, strategic partnerships and advocacy.

Empower by GoDaddy 

Empower by GoDaddy is GoDaddy's global community and philanthropic program equipping entrepreneurs in underserved communities with training, tools and peer networks to accelerate their journeys. GoDaddy rallies behind entrepreneurs in underserved communities by building their confidence and skills to strengthen their small business’ digital presence.  Entrepreneurs engage in customized learning experiences, work 1-1 with GoDaddy volunteer coaches and local mentors, and gain access to wrap-around services, in-kind products and networks boosting their small businesses success.

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