Automated decision-making is the process of making decisions using automation without direct human involvement, and may involve a degree of human oversight and intervention in some uses. ADM can be found across a large and growing number of sectors, with ramifications across all walks of life, impacting on everyday lives – including public administration, welfare, health, education, law, business, employment, transportation, media and entertainment.

Structural problems caused by the tendency to focus on the artefacts of digitisation can lead to people being disempowered by algorithms. The goal of People Powered Algorithms is to respond to this by developing new approaches aimed at reintroducing people empowerment into the process of digitisation.

The challenge taken up by PPA is to expose and work with the logics embedded in ADM so that they can be accessed in a meaningful way by both specialists and the general public.

In the United States technology is beginning to play a significant role in decision-making and helping agencies to arrive at improved long-term life outcomes for resettled refugees. In New York refugees have been resettled in a particular location based on the suggestion of an algorithmic tool known as Annie Moore.