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Automated decision-making (ADM)

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A decision about a person taken by automated means. GDPR Article 22 restricts decisions based solely on automated processing with legal or similarly significant effects 1; after the SCHUFA judgment, a score that lenders treat as determining is itself such a decision 2.

Developed in
ch. 19, GDPR Article 22 after SCHUFA
Chapters
ch. 16, Fairness & XAI · ch. 19, Privacy & AI
Source
2 numbered references, listed below

Where it is used

7 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Patterns that use this term

One pattern page uses the term.

  • Contest path

    The route by which a person affected by an automated decision reaches a reviewer who did not take the original decision, sees the inputs, the reasons and the…

  • Algorithmic Impact Assessment (AIA)

    The assessment Canada's Directive on Automated Decision-Making requires before a federal automated decision system goes into production.

  • PIPIA

    China's personal information protection impact assessment under PIPL Articles 55 and 56, required in advance for sensitive data, automated decision-making…

Sources

  1. [1] Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) (Arts. 4(1), 4(5), 4(7), 4(8), 4(12), 4(14), 5, 6, 9, 12(3), 22, 25, 28(2) and 28(4), 30, 33, 35; Recital 26). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2016-04-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng (verified: primary)
  2. [2] Press release No 186/23: judgment in Case C-634/21, SCHUFA Holding (Scoring) (a credit score is an automated individual decision where lenders give it a determining role). Court of Justice of the EU. 2023-12-07. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-12/cp230186en.pdf (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Automated decision-making (ADM). In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/automated-decision-making-adm. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026automateddecisionmakingadm,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Automated decision-making (ADM)}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/automated-decision-making-adm}
}