A Step Towards Inherently Interpretable Causal Machine Learning Models For Decision Support
David Zapata Gonzalez
cs.CE, stat.ML
Submitted: 2026-06-23
Journal ref: https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/bus_analytics/bus_analytics/7/
Code: https://github.com/drzg15/inherently_interpretable_causal_machine_learning
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: The growing reliance on machine learning for decisions across sectors underscores the importance of model transparency and interpretability.
Terminology
Abstract
The growing reliance on machine learning for decisions across sectors underscores the importance of model transparency and interpretability. Existing post hoc explainability methods and inherently interpretable approaches shed light on model behavior, yet they primarily reveal how models exploit correlations to maximize performance in prediction tasks. However, many decisions require causal insights and the possibility of using models for what-if scenario evaluation. To address this, we propose the integration of causal machine learning with inherently interpretable models for cross-sectional data. We evaluate these methods in terms of predictive accuracy and interpretability. Our findings show that the proposed approach achieves competitive performance in prediction and what-if analysis while offering transparency on the system structure, causal relationships among variables, and the functional forms that connect them. This work contributes to research on causality, machine learning interpretability, and data-driven decision support by offering informed, transparent, and causally grounded decisions.
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