Background:
Any new technology undergoes an awareness and acceptance process before reaching any level of market penetration. That process often rests more on perception and attitudes than on objective measures of speeds, feeds, or productivity. The hype around all things AI has certainly addressed the awareness aspect, although the messages have brought more confusion than clarity for most consumers. Several themes have emerged around the possible benefits from AI assistance such as sparking creativity, boosting productivity, or fostering learning. Simultaneously, there are widespread concerns deterring adoption, including threats to privacy, incorrect results, and disappointment in the offering from what the user expected. Regarding which part of the market might be most accepting of AI, a widely held view is that Generation Z would be first. We’re hoping to address this presumption with empirical evidence.
Approach:
As part of the MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile 2024 study, we asked respondents to rate nine statements on a five-point agreement scale. For this analysis, we evaluated three statements as being positive: “AI is a very good way to learn new things,” “AI has been helping me be more productive”, and “AI has been helping me be more creative.” We measured three other statements as being negative: “I am concerned that AI may threaten my privacy,” “AI gives too many wrong answers,” and “AI is not as good as I thought it would be.” We calculated a difference score as the summation of positive ratings minus the negative ratings. We report this difference score by generation and country.